GWeekly_July_30.txt
****The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, July 30, 2003***
******eBooks Readable By Both Humans and Computers For Over 32 Years*******
This Week We Passed Another Major Milestone!!!
Project Gutenberg of Australia Presents Their 250th eBook!!!
These Were Done In Just Under Two Years! Their Anniversay Is August 1 !
This Is More eBooks Than Project Gutenberg Produced from 1971 to 1995!!!
If 40 Countries Did The Same, That Would Be 10,000 eBooks In Two Years !
Only 5 Months/19 Weeks Until eBook #10,000 I Hope!!!
8871 Books Done. . .1129 To Go. . .in 133 More Days!
[The Newsletter is now being sent in three sections, so you can directly
go to the portions you find most interesting: 1. Founder's Comments,
2. News, Notes & Queries, and 3. Weekly eBook Update Listing.]
This is Michael Hart's "Founder's Comments" section of the Newsletter
Over Our 32 4/53 Year History, We Have Now Averaged About 275 Ebooks/Year
And This Year We Averaged Over That Same New eBook Level. . .PER MONTH!!!
We Are Averaging Over 300 Per Month!!!
***
Anniversay Message From The Founder of Project Gutenberg of Australia
***Project Gutenberg of Australia--Two Years On***
Following on the heels of the Project Gutenberg fourth of July celebrations,
August 1 is the second anniversary of Project Gutenberg of Australia.
Over here, the date commemorates "horses' birthday". I am not sure of
the significance of that fact in relation to this article though it makes
a nice lead in to mentioning that it seems only yesterday that we posted
"Animal Farm" as our first ebook.
Now we have recently posted ebook #250, "Titanic and Other Ships", the
autobiography of Charles Lightoller. As with so many books at PGofOz this
one turned up attached to an email from a volunteer, another item of
treasure to be made available. Lightoller was a survivor of the Titanic
disaster. He served as an officer on other ships and had many other
adventures. He has a particular connection to Australia, having met his
future wife here, and he was also resposible for perpetrating a prank in
Sydney, where he fired a "one gun salute" using the cannon at Fort Denison,
a small sandstone fort built on a small rock in Sydney Harbour,
not far from the Quay and the landing place of the First Fleet.
He then raised the flag of the Boers, with whom Australia was at war
at the time. It caused quite a stir, but you will need to read the ebook
to get the full story.
That incident occurred in 1900. In 2003 it would be nice for me, in
Sydney (where, David Price, it is always warm and sunny) to be able to
row or sail over to Fort Denison, pause a few minutes to take in the view
of the Opera House, the Sydney Harbour Briddge and the city skyline, and
then fire a TWO gun salute to Project Gutenberg of Australia, one report
for each year. We could raise the Project Gutenberg flag, salute the
standard of a friendly power and then give THREE cheers for all those
volunteers who have made Project Gutenberg such a force for good!
Col Choat
P.S.
Access "Titanic and Other Ships" from
http://gutenberg.net.au/plusfifty.html
2 sites covering Fort Denison...
http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/hs_hb_fort_denison.asp
http://www.nachohat.org/p/sydney_oct2001/fort_denison/
***
In this issue of the Project Gutenberg Weekly newsletter:
- Intro (above) Project Gutenberg of Australia
- Requests For Assistance Mommsen
- Progress Report
- Flashback
- Continuing Requests For Assistance
- Making Donations
- Access To The Collection
- Information About Mirror Sites
- Have We Given Away A Trillion Yet?
- Weekly eBook update:
Updates/corrections in separate section
9 New From PG Australia [Australian, Canadian Copyright Etc.]
93 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright
- "The Future Of Project Gutenberg"
- Headline News from Newsscan and Edupage
- Information about mailing lists
*** Requests For Assistance
Ted Garvin <garvint@yahoo.com>
Has a nice list of classic Latin eBooks that we need to find matching
paper editions for so we can do the copyright research. If you can
call your library to find out if they have any of these, then spend
a minute on each one xeroxing the title page and verso, and THEN a
minute on each chapter's first and last pages, this would be a VERY
effective way to get these into our collection. Many Thanks!!!!!!!
***
We are starting an India Team to do eBooks in:
Tamil
Sanksrit
Telugu
Hindi
Punjabi
etc.
If you know any of the languages of India, or know anyone who does,
please contact: Maitri Venkat-Ramani <maitri@vexed.org>
***
Spanish proofers needed for cookbook, and perhaps El Cid.
***
We have a request for more books by Mommsen from a reader
who is VERY happy to have those we aready provided.
[I think we have found five more volumes, are there more?]
***
Latin Is A Dying Language???
Latin Library (www.thelatinlibrary.com) died,
and was resurrected recently, bring attention
to the fact that we need to save these files,
find matching paper editions, and be sure the
files don't disappear.
If you would like to help with Latin eBooks,
please let me know.
***
Project Gutenberg DVD Needs Burners
So far we have access to only ONE DVD burner, on a laptop
belonging to a personal friend. If you have a DVD burner
or plan to get one in the next 6 months, please email me,
so we can plan how many DVD's we can make with all 10,000
Project Gutenberg eBooks on them when they are ready. We
can likely send you a box of CDs containing most of these
files early, and then a final update CD in November while
you would download the last month's/weeks' releases.
*** PROJECT GUTENBERG IS SEEKING LEGAL BEAGLES
We are seeking pro bono or very cheap legal assistance to pursue
Project Gutenberg trademark infringers and similar issues. Please
email Michael Hart <hart@pobox.com>.
[We received 3 replies from the US, 1 from Australia, but
may need more around December 10.]
*** NEW ADDRESS FOR "PUNCH" MAGAZINE TEAM
If you have, and are willing to scan bound volumes of Punch
pre-1923 please contanct as below. No single issues, please,
unless you have a complete year of them.
Please contact: jonathan_ingram@yahoo.com
*** Progress Report
In the first 6.80 months of this year, we produced 2128 new eBooks.
It took us from 1971 to 1999 to produce our first 2,128 eBooks!
That's 30 WEEKS as Compared to 29 Years!
99 New eBooks This Week
67 New eBooks Last Week
460 New eBooks This Month [July]
313 Average Per Month in 2003 <<<
203 Average Per Month in 2002 <<<
103 Average Per Month in 2001 <<<
2128 New eBooks in 2003 <<<
2441 New eBooks in 2002
1240 New eBooks in 2001
8,871 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks
5,639 eBooks This Week Last Year
3,167 New eBooks In The Last 12 Months <<<
4,379 New eBooks in the last 18 months <<<
255 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia
*Main URL is promo.net Webmaster is Pietro di Miceli of Rome, Italy*
Check out our Websites at promo.net/pg & gutenberg.net, and see below
to learn how you can get INSTANT access to our eBooks via FTP servers
even before the new eBooks listed below appear in our catalogue. The
eBooks are posted throughout the week. You can even get daily lists.
***
FLASHBACK!!!
2128 New eBooks So Far in 2003
It took us 29 years for the first 2128!
That's the 30 WEEKS of 2003 as Compared to 29 YEARS!!!
Here Is A Sample Of What Books Were Being Done Around #2128
Apr 2000 The Day's Work - Part I, by Rudyard Kipling [RK#8][dywrkxxx.xxx] 2138
Apr 2000 Rosamund, by Algernon Charles Swinburne [ACS #2][rsmndxxx.xxx] 2137
Apr 2000 The Tale of Balen, by Algernon Charles Swinburne 1[balenxxx.xxx] 2136
Apr 2000 Stories by English Authors in London, Scribners [sbealxxx.xxx] 2135
Apr 2000 Utopia of Usurers, et al, by G. K. Chesterton[#14][uusryxxx.xxx] 2134
Apr 2000 Chinese Sketches, by Herbert A. Giles [Giles #2][chnskxxx.xxx] 2133
Apr 2000 The Daughter of an Empress, by Louise Muhlbach [dmprsxxx.xxx] 2132
Apr 2000 An Account of Egypt, by Herodotus, Tr. by Macaulay[agyptxxx.xxx] 2131
Apr 2000 Utopia, by Thomas More[Banned in his time][More#2][utopixxx.xxx] 2130
Apr 2000 Murad the Unlucky, etc., by Maria Edgeworth[ME #3][muradxxx.xxx] 2129
Apr 2000 Original Narratives of Early American History[var][mohwkxxx.xxx] 2128
Apr 2000 Paul and Virginia, by Bernardin de Saint Pierre [pandvxxx.xxx] 2127
Mar 2000 The Quest of the Sacred Slipper, by Sax Rohmer[#6][qotssxxx.xxx] 2126
Mar 2000 The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia, Samuel W. Baker[niletxxx.xxx] 2125
Mar 2000 Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms, by Fa-Hien[Legge#1][rbddhxxx.xxx] 2124
Mar 2000 The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard by Anatole France 3[tcosbxxx.xxx] 2123
Mar 2000 Appendix to Carlyle's History of Friedrich II [22frdxxx.xxx] 2122
Mar 2000 Carlyle's "History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 21[21frdxxx.xxx] 2121
Mar 2000 Carlyle's "History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 20[20frdxxx.xxx] 2120
through
Mar 2000 Carlyle's "History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 1 [01frdxxx.xxx] 2101
Mar 2000 The Bible, in Swedish, From Project Runeberg [biblsxxx.xxx] 2100
Mar 2000 History of the Moravian Church, by J. E. Hutton [hotmcxxx.xxx] 2099
Mar 2000 A Thief in the Night, by E. W. Hornung[Hornung #4][thfntxxx.xxx] 2098
Mar 2000 The Sign of the Four, by Arthur Conan Doyle [#16][sign4xxx.xxx] 2097
Mar 2000 A Smaller History of Greece, by William Smith [asmhgxxx.xxx] 2096
Mar 2000 Clotelle: A Tale of the Southern States, by Brown [clotlxxb.xxx] 2095
(See also #2046 and #241)
Mar 2000 The Original Writings of Samuel Adams, Volume 4 [4sdmsxxx.xxx] 2094
Mar 2000 The Original Writings of Samuel Adams, Volume 3 [3sdmsxxx.xxx] 2093
Mar 2000 The Original Writings of Samuel Adams, Volume 2 [2sdmsxxx.xxx] 2092
Mar 2000 The Original Writings of Samuel Adams, Volume 1 [1sdmsxxx.xxx] 2091
[Volume 1 is still reserved we need a copy]
Feb 2000 Tao Hua Yuan Ji, by Tao YuanMing [Chinese/English][peachxxx.xxx] 2090
[AKA: Peach Blossom Shangri-la, by Tao YuanMing [short]]
Feb 2000 The Reception of the Origin of Species, T H Huxley[oroosxxx.xxx] 2089
Feb 2000 Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, Volume II [#8][2llcdxxx.xxx] 2088
Feb 2000 Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, Volume I [#7][1llcdxxx.xxx] 2087
Feb 2000 The Slowcoach, by E. V. Lucas [slwchxxx.xxx] 2086
Feb 2000 Cyropaedia, by Xenophon [Transl. H. G. Dakyns] #14[cyrusxxx.xxx] 2085
Feb 2000 The Way of All Flesh, by Samuel Butler [Butler#3][wflshxxx.xxx] 2084
Feb 2000 In Search of the Castaways, by Jules Verne [JV#11][cstwyxxx.xxx] 2083
Feb 2000 Memoirs of the Comtesse du Barry by Lamothe-Langon[dbrryxxx.xxx] 2082
[by Baron Etienne Leon Lamothe-Langon, using a pseudonym]
{Note: Version 10 is the binary version with French accents; Version 11
(is the Plain Vanilla ASCII version without accents.)
Feb 2000 The Blithedale Romance, by Nathaniel Hawthorne[#7][blthdxxx.xxx] 2081
***
The Future Of Project Gutenberg
We have had renewed interest in various areas of music, from publishing
more song lyrics and scores to listenable pieces in MIDI, WAV, and MP3.
***
Today Is Day #210 of 2003
This Completes Week #30
160 Days/23 Weeks To Go [We get 53 Wednesdays this year]
1129 Books To Go To #10,000
133 Days To December 10, 2003
[Our Goal For eBook #10,000]
[Our production year begins/ends
1st Wednesday of the month/year]
Week #68 Of Our SECOND 5,000 eBooks
71 Weekly Average in 2003
47 Weekly Average in 2002
24 Weekly Average in 2001
39 Only 39 Numbers Left On Our Reserved Numbers list
[Used to be well over 100]
*** Continuing Requests For Assistance:
Project Gutenberg--Canada will be starting up soon,
please let us know if you would like to volunteer!
Copyright in Canada is "Life +50" as in Australia,
and we have volunteers working on both of these.
We will also be seeking volunteers from others of
the "life +50" countries.
email: Diane Gratton <diane_xml@hotmail.com>
***
Thesis User Study:
How do you use Project Gutenberg?
Be part of our research!!!
"Visit http://ibiblio.org/gutenberg
for a link to the study.
It only takes a few minutes."
or
Contact Debbie Dvorniks directly:
dvorniks@pacbell.net
San Jose State University
***
People interested in TeX/LaTeX documents on Project Gutenberg
please contact: tex@spacerad.com <<<We're Doing Einstein!!!
***
DISTRIBUTED PROOFREADERS NEEDS CONTENT, PROOFERS AND SCANNER TYPES
Please contact us at:
dphelp@pgdp.net
if you would like to know more about the Distributed Proofreaders.
Thanks to very good recent publicity, the Distributed Proofreading
project has greatly accelerated its pace. Please visit the site:
http://texts01.archive.org/dp for more information about how you can
help, by proofreading just a few pages per day.
If you have a book that has been scanned, but not yet run
through OCR (optical character recognition) or proofed,
and you would like the Distributed Proofreaders to work on it,
please email dphelp@pgdp.net and we will get things started.
Also, DP is seeking public domain books not already in the
Project Gutenberg collection. To see what is already online,
visit http://ibiblio.org/gutenberg/GUTINDEX.ALL (a text file),
since the online database doesn't reflect recent additions.
Do you have Public Domain books your would like to see in the archive?
Can they be destructively scanned? If so send them to the Distributed
Proofreading Team! Please email dphelp@pgdp.net with your geographic
location. You will be given the address of the nearest high-speed scanner
(note that the high-speed scanner requires destruction of the book(s) which
will not be returned)." Alternatively, you can send your books directly to:
Charles Franks
9030 W. Sahara Ave. #195
Las Vegas, NV 89117
Please make sure that any books you send are _not_ already in the archive
and please check them against David's In Progress list at
http://www.dprice48.freeserve.co.uk/GutIP.html
to ensure no one is currently working on them. It would also be helpful if
you obtain copyright clearance before mailing the books, and send the 'OK'
lines to
dphelp@pgdp.net
Do you like to work on an entire book at once but don't have the time
or technology to do the scanning, OCR, and initial proofing yourself?
Distributed Proofreaders has the perfect solution! Just send us email
telling us that you are interested in post-processing and we will help
find a you project you would like to work on.
***
We Have Included Quick and Easy Ways to Donate. . .As Per Your Requests!
We Are Looking For Volunteers To Add eBooks In More Languages,
and in more formats, including music, artwork, movies, etc.
***
QUICK WAYS TO MAKE A DONATION TO PROJECT GUTENBERG
A. Send a check or money order to:
Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
809 North 1500 West
Salt Lake City, UT 84116
USA
B. Donate by credit card online
NetworkForGood:
http://www.guidestar.org/partners/networkforgood/donate.jsp?ein=64-6221541
or
PayPal to "donate@gutenberg.net":
https://www.paypal.com
/xclick/business=donate%40gutenberg.net&item_name=Donate+to+Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg's success is due to the hard work of thousands of
volunteers over more than 32 years. Your donations make it possible
to support these volunteers, and pay our few employees to continue the
creation of free electronic texts. We accept credit cards, checks and
transfers from any country, in any currency.
Donations are made to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
(PGLAF). PGLAF is approved as a charitable 501(c)(3) organization by
the US Internal Revenue Service, and has the Federal Employee Information
Number (EIN) 64-6221541.
For more information, including several other ways to donate, go to
http://promo.net/pg/donation.html or email donate@gutenberg.net
*** HOW TO GET EBOOKS FROM OUR MIRROR SITES
http://promo.net/pg (aka http://www.gutenberg.net) allows searching by
title, author, language and subject. Mirrors (copies) of the complete
collection are available around the world.
http://gutenberg.net/list.html can get you to the nearest one.
These sites and indices are not instant, as the cataloguing needs to be
done by our professional Chief Cataloguer.
--"INSTANT" ACCESS TO OUR LATEST eBOOKS
Use your Web browser or FTP program to visit our master download
site (or a mirror) if you know the filename you want. Try:
http://ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext04
or
ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext04
and look for the first five letters of the filesname. Note that updated
eBooks usually go in their original directory (e.g., etext99, etext00, etc.)
*** Have We Given Away A Trillion Books/Dollars Yet???
Statistical Review
In the 30 weeks of this year, we have produced 2128 new eBooks.
It took us from 1971 to 2000 to produce our FIRST 2128 eBooks!!!
That's 30 WEEKS as Compared to 29 YEARS!!!
With 8,871 eBooks online as of July 30, 2003 it now takes an average
of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $1.13 from each book,
for Project Gutenberg to have currently given away $1,000,000,000,000
[One Trillion Dollars] in books.
100,000,000 readers is only about 1.585 percent of the world's population!
This "cost" is down from about $1.77 when we had 5556 eBooks A Year Ago
Can you imagine ~8,900 books each costing $.64 less a year later???
Or. . .would this say it better?
Can you imagine ~8,900 books each costing 1/3 less a year later???
At 8871 eBooks in 32 Years and 00.80 Months We Averaged
270 Per Year [About how many we do per month these days!]
23 Per Month
.75 Per Day
At 2128 eBooks Done In The 210 Days Of 2003 We Averaged
10 Per Day
71 Per Week
313 Per Month
The production statistics are calculated based on full weeks of
production, each production-week starting/ending Wednesday noon,
starting with the first Wednesday in January. January 1st was
was the first Wednesday of 2003, and thus ended the production
year of 2002 and began the production year of 2003 at noon.
This year there will be 53 Wednesdays, thus one extra week.
***Headline News***
[Editor's Comments In Brackets]
From Newsscan
[Sample reason: "Clear Channel" corporation owned about 40 radio stations
before the last huge change to allow greater monopoly power, and own ~1240
stations now as a result.
U.S. HOUSE REVERSES NEW MEDIA OWNERSHIP RULES
The U.S. House of Representatives has voted 400 to 21 in favor of a bill
reversing a rule that would have allowed television networks to expand
their audience coverage from 35% to 45% of the country. The provision was
attached to a $37.9 billion bill funding the Commerce, Justice and State
Departments next year, and the Bush administration has threatened to veto
the annual spending bill if attempts to rescind the new media ownership
rules were included. The Federal Communications Commission's recent
relaxation of those rules has met with criticism from Democrats and
Republicans alike who argue it likely would reduce local reporting and
diversity of viewpoints, but FCC Chairman Michael Powell defended the move,
saying that it reflects the current marketplace. "We created enforceable
rules that reflect the realities of today's media marketplace. The rules
will benefit Americans by protecting localism, competition and diversity."
(Wired.com 23 Jul 2003)
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,59745,00.html
[Will They Include RFID "Dog Tags" That Always Tell Where You Are?"]
'SMART' PASSPORTS SET FOR 2004 DEBUT
Beginning in October 2004, the U.S. will begin issuing "smart" passports
that include an embedded microchip that stores a compressed image of its
owner's face. The new digital passports are intended to prevent tampering,
but civil liberties groups say such technology could eventually be used to
monitor the activities of citizens in unprecedented detail. However, Frank
Moss, deputy assistant secretary for Passport Services at the U.S. State
Department says such fears are unfounded: "They will include no information
other than that on the basic passport information page." Meanwhile,
European travelers may also soon be required to carry passports containing
both fingerprint and iris scan biometric information, but no date has been
set yet for the new passports' introduction. (New Scientist 23 Jul 2003)
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993975
[Apparently Some Voting Machines in Florida Had Protection Turned OFF]
SERIOUS FLAWS IN ELECTRONIC VOTING SYSTEMS
Johns Hopkins University experts say that high-tech voting machine software
from Diebold Election Systems has flaws that would let voters cast extra
votes and allow poll workers to alter ballots secretly. Aviel D. Rubin,
technical director of the Information Security Institute at Johns Hopkins,
led a team that examined the Diebold software, which has about 33,000
voting machines operating in the United States. Adam Stubblefield, a
colleague of Rubin's, said that "practically anyone in the country -- from
a teenager on up -- could produce these smart cards that could allow
someone to vote as many times as they like." Diebold has not seen the
Institute's report and would not comment on it in detail, but a company
spokesman said: "We're constantly improving it so the technology we have 10
years from now will be better than what we have today. We're always open to
anything that can improve our systems." Peter G. Neumann, an expert in
computer security at SRI International, said the Diebold code was "just the
tip of the iceberg" of problems with electronic voting systems. [Side note:
see the interview of Peter Neumann by John Gehl in the archives of the ACM
online publication Ubiquity:
http://www.acm.org/ubiquity/interviews/p_neumann_3.html.] (New York Times
[Amazon Says They Want To "Parter" With Project Gutenberg. . .But Hasn't
Offered Anything In Return. . .Any Thoughts on This??? [hart@pobox.com]
AMAZON'S TRIBUTARIES: SOFTWARE, SEARCHING, MUSIC, AND ...
Revenue for Amazon, the Internet's largest retailer, reached $1.1 billion
this quarter (up 36%). Although books and other media account for more than
78% of that revenue, the company is rapidly expanding into areas far beyond
its bookseller origins, with new projects in software, searching, music,
and international markets (where it's 2nd quarter results showed a 81%
year-over-year gain to $397 million). With regard to searching, Amazon has
been developing a search engine that will allow consumers to search the
entire text of books (rather than just the titles or summaries).
(USA Today 23 Jul 2003)
www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/techearnings/2003-07-22-amazoncom_x.htm
U-TEXAS PUTS GUTENBERG BIBLE ON THE WEB
The University of Texas has digitized its entire two-volume Gutenberg Bible
and posted portions of it on its library Web site:
http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/permanent/gutenberg/ . While other
copies of the famed Bible have also gone digital, officials at the
university's Harry Ransom Center say their copy is the best of the lot,
because it was in use in monasteries in Southern Germany as late as the
1760s, and was heavily annotated by monks who scratched out some passages
and corrected others. Other sections were highlighted for reading aloud or
for use during Mass. "Our copy is the most interesting in the world," says
head librarian Richard Oram, and Paul Needham, of Princeton University's
Scheide Library, agrees: "This is probably the most extensively annotated
and corrected copy surviving. This is a very great treasure." The
digitization project began in June 2002 and the finished product gives Web
viewers 7,000 images of the unique manuscript. (AP 23 Jul 2003)
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20030723/D7SF4NEG0.html
RIAA UNLEASHES LAWYERS ON PARENTS, GRANDPARENTS
The Recording Industry Association of America is targeting parents and, in
some cases, grandparents of youthful music file-swappers, threatening them
with legal action over their offspring's music-sharing activities. The
subpoenas have come as a shock to both parents and their children, who
assumed that using cryptic nicknames such as "hottdude0587" guaranteed them
anonymity. The RIAA says it has cited the numeric Internet addresses of
high-volume music downloaders on its subpoenas and can track users only by
comparing those addresses against subscriber records held by ISPs, but the
Associated Press had no trouble using those addresses and some details
culled from the subpoenas to identify and locate some of the targets.
Outside legal experts warned that the music industry should move carefully
in selecting targets for prosecution. "If they end up picking on
individuals who are perceived to be grandmothers or junior high students
who have only downloaded in isolated incidents, they run the risk of a
backlash," says one Hollywood attorney. (AP 24 Jul 2003)
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20030724/D7SFNKE00.html
EFF SETS UP DATABASE OF RIAA SUBPOENA TARGETS
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has stepped right into the middle of the
file-swapping fray, offering potential targets of the subpoenas recently
issued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) a way to
check and see if they're on the list. "We hope that the EFF's subpoena
database will give people some peace of mind and the information they need
to challenge these subpoenas and protect their privacy," says EFF senior
counsel Fred Von Lohmann. The database allows people to check their
file-sharing "handle" (e.g., hottdude123) against a list of subpoenas
issued. If they see their name, they can access an electronic copy of the
subpoena, which includes the name of their ISP, a list of songs pirated and
the Internet address of the user. By the end of last week, nearly 900
subpoenas had been issued, with 75 additional being added every day. The
subpoenas are intended to force the ISPs to divulge the identity of the
alleged file-swappers and the RIAA is threatening lawsuits, claiming damages
ranging from $750 to $150,000. "The recording industry continues its futile
crusade to sue thousands of the more than 60 million people who use
file-sharing software in the U.S.," says Von Lohmann. The EFF has teamed
with the U.S. Internet Industry Association to set up a Web site called
subpoenadefense.org, which provides information on lawyers and other
resources for those facing legal action. (BBC News 28 Jul 2003)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3102261.stm#graphic
[For an interesting overview of the legal issues involved in the RIAA's
battle against file-swappers, see "Copying is Theft -- And Other Legal
Myths" by Mark Rasch, former head of the U.S. Justice Department's computer
crime unit, 28 Jul 2003, http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/32004.html]
NETWORK SOLUTIONS MAY BE LIABLE FOR SEX.COM SWITCH
A U.S. appellate court has ruled that Web registry Network Solutions may be
liable for damages for its part in transferring the domain name "sex.com"
from its rightful owner, Gary Kremen, to convicted forger Stephen Michael
Cohen. In his ruling, Judge Alex Kozinski said that domain names should be
treated as property, despite their virtual nature, comparing them to "a plot
of land." "Exposing Network Solutions to liability when it gives away a
registrant's domain name on the basis of a forged letter is no different
from holding a corporation liable when it gives away someone's shares under
the same circumstances. The common law does not stand idle while people give
away the property of others," wrote Kozinski, who returned the case to the
U.S. District Court in San Jose to be tried again. "This was a major
victory, no doubt about it," said Kremen, who won a $65 million judgment
against Cohen, but has been unable to collect because Cohen has fled the
country. The case, which may garner landmark status for equating domain
names with tangible property, likely will be retried within a year. (CNet
News.com 25 Jul 2003) http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5055771.html
THE COSTS OF SPAM (NOT INCLUDING BLOOD PRESSURE MEDS)
Spam costs senders almost nothing, but takes a heavy toll on those who
receive it. Ferris Research says the cost of spam is $10 billion in the
U.S.; Nucleus Research pegs the figure at $87 billion. Is the problem being
overblown? Wharton School marketing professor Peter S. Fader says: "I am
deeply skeptical that these crude top-down methods are accurate. Hitting the
delete key is far more efficient than carrying your physical mail from the
mailbox over to the trash can." And he even sees an upside: "Spam, although
it is a bad thing per se, is fostering the growth of the e-mail
infrastructure." But that new infrastructure also comes with a price: Ferris
Research says corporations will spend $120 million this year on antispam
systems, and The Radicati Group claims the correct figure is closer to $635
million. Ah, what to do, what to do? America Online now discards, each day,
nearly 2 billion e-mail messages flagged as spam -- but then has to contend
with complaints [including NewsScan] about "false positives" (mail falsely
treated as spam). Ferris Research says: "We think companies lose $3 billion
dealing with false positives." (New York Times 28 Jul 2003)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2003/07/28/technology/28SPAM.html
[Half Of The Places I Go To Buy Videos ONLY Carry DVDs Now]
VHS MAKING THE LONG GOODBYE
DVD now accounts for 70% of the overall home video market, whereas last year
the split between DVD and VHS was 50-50. But there are still almost 50
million U.S. homes with VHS players (and without DVD players), and Fox's
Steven Feldstein says: "It's not time to play taps for VHS... It will make a
graceful exit." Others, however, think the end is near, and Columbia TriStar
president Benjamin Feingold predicts, "I suspect in a year and a half it
will be tough to find (movies on tape)." VCR sales are down 46% in the first
six months this year compared with the same period in 2002, according to the
Consumer Electronics Association. (USA Today 27 Jul 2003)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-07-27-vhs_x.htm
[DARPA, Didn't They Invent The Internet, And Now Deny It?]
PENTAGON'S ONLINE TRADING MARKET PLAN DRAWS FIRE
The U.S. Defense Department's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA) has plans to set up an online Policy Analysis Market that will
allow traders to bet on the likelihood of future terrorist attacks and
political assassinations in the Middle East. The bizarre scheme has drawn
fire from Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.). "The idea
of a federal betting parlor on atrocities and terrorism is ridiculous and
it's grotesque," said Wyden, while Dorgan described the plan as "useless,
offensive and unbelievably stupid. How would you feel if you were the King
of Jordan and you learned that the U.S. Defense Department was taking bets
on your being overthrown within a year?" However, the Pentagon defended the
initiative, comparing it to commodity futures markets. "Research indicates
that markets are extremely efficient, effective and timely aggregators of
dispersed and even hidden information. Futures markets have proven
themselves to be good at predicting such things as election results; they
are often better than expert opinions." The market would allow traders to
deposit money in an account and then use it to buy and sell contracts. If a
particular event comes to pass, the bettors who wagered correctly would win
the money of those who guessed wrong. (BBC News 29 Jul 2003)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3106559.stm
[This Just In NOT From Newsscan]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Pentagon (news - web sites) plan to get
information on the Middle East by setting up an online futures market
where investors would bet on the probability of war, terrorism and
other events is going to be scrapped, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul
Wolfowitz said on Tuesday.
"My understanding is it's going to be terminated," Wolfowitz told
members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
[snip]
"We are asking the administration this morning to renounce this plan to
trade in death," Daschle said on the Senate floor. "The administration
should issue a public apology, especially to the families of the 911
victims..."
E-MAIL DOWNTIME MORE STRESSFUL THAN DIVORCE?
A study sponsored by data-storage firm Veritas Software found that for 34%
of chief information officers and IT managers, a weeklong failure of the
corporate e-mail system would be more traumatic than a minor car accident,
moving to a new home, or getting married or divorced. Smooth-running e-mail
systems are essential to the enterprise, and 68% of the companies polled
reported workers becoming irate within as little as 30 minutes after an
e-mail system goes down. In the case of a failure lasting as long as 24
hours, one fifth of IT managers said their jobs would be on the line at
that point. "E-mail has become far more than a communication tool, placing
a huge responsibility on organizations to ensure that e-mail is always
available," says Mark Bregman, Veritas' executive VP for product
operations. "When IT managers fail to keep the systems running, they
inhibit the ability of the entire organization to conduct business." (CNet
News.com 28 Jul 2003)
http://news.com.com/2100-1011_3-5056446.html?tag=fd_top
You have been reading excerpts from NewsScan
NewsScan Daily is underwritten by RLG, a world-class
organization making significant and sustained contributions to the
effective management and appropriate use of information technology.
To subscribe or unsubscribe to the text, html, or handheld versions
of NewsScan Daily, send the appropriate subscribe or unsubscribe messages
(i.e., with the word 'subscribe' or 'unsubscribe' in the subject line) to:
Text version: Send message to NewsScan@NewsScan.com
Html version: Send mail to NewsScan-html@NewsScan.com
NewsScan-To-Go: http://www.newsscan.com/handheld/current.html
***
From Edupage
[Does Anyone Have The URL For This Search Engine?]
MIT DEVELOPING SEARCH ENGINE FOR GLOBAL POOR
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) argue
that existing Web technologies cater to "Western" users, who are
"cash-rich but time-poor." Users in poor countries, they say, where
phone lines can be hard to come by and many Internet connections are
extremely slow, are in a very different boat: little money but lots of
time. To address this gap, researchers are developing a search engine
that sends requests by e-mail to MIT, where computers perform searches
and return e-mail lists of filtered results the next day. The premise
of the system, according to MIT's Saman Amarasinghe, is that
"developing countries are willing to pay in time for knowledge."
Because those who could benefit from the search engine have only very
slow Internet connections, the software is being distributed on CDs to
users in developing countries.
BBC, 15 July 2003
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3065063.stm
DHS [Department of Homeland Security] TO FUND UNIVERSITY SECURITY CENTERS
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued new guidelines for
funding homeland security centers at universities. For the 2004 fiscal
year, the House of Representatives and the Senate proposed spending a
combined $90 million on the centers and related fellowships. The new
guidelines redress what many university officials perceived as a bias
favoring Texas A&M University at College Station. According to Jennifer
Poulakidas of the University of California system, "It's a pretty wide
open competition." The Oak Ridge Associated Universities, a consortium
of research universities, will conduct analyses and make
recommendations to the DHS. The first grant for a center to focus on
economic strategies to cope with terrorism will be awarded in November,
with plans to establish nine additional centers by the end of 2004.
Chronicle of Higher Education, 24 July 2003 (sub. req'd)
http://chronicle.com/daily/2003/07/2003072401n.htm
RIAA SUBPOENAS GRANDPARENTS, ROOMMATES
Subpoenas recently sent by the Recording Industry of America (RIAA)
have cut a wide swath, targeting roommates and relatives in an effort
to stop illegal file sharing. Those engaged in file-sharing who thought
their identities were masked behind a user name are finding that the
RIAA can track down the computers they are using. Roommates, parents,
or other relatives who might have been oblivious to the fact that their
computers were being used for illegal file trading are now receiving
subpoenas to halt such use. Gordon Pate, who received a supboena on his
daughter's behalf, said, "There's no way either us or our daughter
would do anything we knew to be illegal. I don't think anybody knew
this was illegal, just a way to get some music." Christopher Caldwell,
a lawyer for the Motion Picture Association of America, thinks the
RIAA's strategy might backfire. He said, "If they end up picking on
individuals who are perceived to be grandmothers or junior high
students who have only downloaded in isolated incidents, they run the
risk of a backlash."
Washington Post, 24 July 2003
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40853-2003Jul24.html
RIAA, HIGHER EDUCATION SEEK PIRACY SOLUTIONS
Higher education and music and movie industry officials are
collaborating to find viable solutions to the problem of peer-to-peer
(P2P) copyright infringement on campuses, amid stepped-up legal action
from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) to prosecute
individual students for illegal file sharing. The Joint Committee of
the Higher Education and Entertainment Communities Technology Task
Force, headed by Penn State President Graham Spanier and RIAA President
Cary Sherman, is exploring new technologies that would prohibit illegal
file-sharing and promote legitimate online music and movie services for
campuses. The committee has solicited input from businesses and has
documented technical information and business models to help
institutions evaluate available options and future participation.
EDUCAUSE Vice President Mark Luker said, "We would really like to
stimulate thinking about new business models, so the music industry can
provide services to a campus in a way that will succeed."
Wired News, 25 July 2003
[Too Much Power in Washington, DC ???]
BOSTON COLLEGE, MIT FIGHT RIAA SUBPOENAS
Boston College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have
filed legal objections to subpoenas from the Recording Industry
Association of America (RIAA). The two institutions argue that civil
law procedures require subpoenas to be filed in a court within 100
miles of those being served with the subpoenas. In this case, RIAA
subpoenas sent to the institutions were issued by a Washington, D.C.,
court. Boston College and MIT also argue that the Family Educational
Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) guarantees them sufficient time to
notify the affected students that someone has requested disclosure of
information about them. The points at issue are purely procedural,
however, because the motions filed by the two institutions indicate
their agreement with the RIAA's right to the requested information.
The RIAA nonetheless disputed the motions, saying the subpoenas can be
issued from any federal court and that FERPA "could not trump the
university's obligation to respond to a DMCA subpoena." A spokeswoman
for DePaul University, which was also served with an RIAA subpoena,
said several people had access to the computer in question, and the
university, therefore, is unable to answer the subpoena.
Chronicle of Higher Education, 23 July 2003 (sub. req'd)
http://chronicle.com/daily/2003/07/2003072301t.htm
CAN MOVIE STUDIOS CURB PIRACY WITH COURTESY?
The movie industry has launched a campaign that adopts a friendly tone
to discourage people from downloading pirated copies of films from the
Internet. Industry officials hope that, in addition to an educational
Web site, television and in-theater ads will appeal to people's
sympathy for how piracy affects the livelihood of the average person by
featuring the likes of industry makeup artists and set painters. A
"Digital Citizenship" Junior Achievement program will educate students
about the history and implications of copyright infringement and
encourage them to spread the word to peers that it's both wrong and
illegal. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has yet to
encounter the piracy problems the recording industry has, mostly
because the technology cannot yet support making decent copies of
movies, and is considering proactive strategies such as making films
available online through legitimate services. Fred von Lohmann of the
Electronic Frontier Foundation said that while consumers may not be
ready to get their movies from the Internet, "when they are, the answer
will be to offer them a compelling legitimate alternative, not telling
them to behave themselves."
PC-BASED BUYMUSIC OFFERS LOW RATES
Recently launched BuyMusic.com, a PC-based Internet music download
site, offers more than 300,000 songs from five major recording labels
for as little as 79 cents per song and $7.95 for a full album. Whereas
other PC-based online music services such as Rhapsody require users to
pay a monthly access fee, BuyMusic is based on the Apple iTunes
pay-as-you-go model. Although the service offers more and cheaper songs
than does iTunes, it doesn't offer the same song portability due to
licensing restrictions and the Windows Media format. Because BuyMusic
CEO Scott Blum wasn't able to strike the same uniform licensing deals
with recording companies and artists as Apple's Steve Jobs, there are
different restrictions on how frequently songs may be burned onto CDs
or copied to other PCs or portable devices. All songs can be burned
onto CDs at least once. BuyMusic's entry into the online music market
is expected to prompt digital music retailers to renegotiate more
lenient terms with the record companies.
Wired News, 22 July 2003
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,59718,00.html
You have been reading excerpts from Edupage:
If you have questions or comments about Edupage,
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-958352.html
or send e-mail to: edupage@educause.edu
To SUBSCRIBE to Edupage, send a message to
LISTSERV@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU
and in the body of the message type:
SUBSCRIBE Edupage YourFirstName YourLastName
***
About the Project Gutenberg Monthly Newsletter:
[Goes out approximately first Wednesday of each month. But
different relays will get it to you at different times; you
can subscribe directly, just send me email to find out how,
or surf to promo.net/pg to subscribe directly by yourself.]
and now
About the Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter:
[Goes out approximately at noon each Wednesday, but various
different relays will get it to you at different times; you
can subscribe directly, just send me email to find out how,
or surf to promo.net/pg to subscribe directly by yourself.]
***
Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists:
For more information about the Project Gutenberg's mailing lists
please visit the following webpage:
http://gutenberg.net/subs.html
Archives and personal settings:
The Lyris Web interface has an easy way to browse past mailing list
contents, and change some personal settings. Visit
http://listserv.unc.edu and select one of the Project Gutenberg lists.
Trouble?
If you are having trouble subscribing, unsubscribing or with
anything else related to the mailing lists, please email
"owner-gutenberg@listserv.unc.edu" to contact the lists'
(human) administrator.
If you would just like a little more information about Lyris
features, you can find their help information at http://www.lyris.com/help
pgweekly_2003_07_30_part_1.txt
If you liked this post, say thanks by sharing it.