*The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, June 2, 2004 PT1* *****eBooks Readable By Both Humans and Computers Since July 4, 1971****** Test sending from hart@login.ibiblio.org Newsletter editors needed! Please email hart@pobox.com or gbnewby@pglaf.org Anyone who would care to get advance editions: please email hart@pobox.com Email address is changing: hart@pobox.com will still work, but the backup address for when pobox.com is down will soon be hart@pglaf.org The older hart@beryl.ils.unc edu will probably still work but may be slower. During emergencies hart@metalab.unc.edu or hart@login.ibiblio.org should work, as that is still my emergency backup email location. Thanks!!! Michael eBook Milestones We Are Over 1/4 of the Way from 10,000 to 20,000 12,808 eBooks As Of Today 7,188 to go to 20,000 It took ~32 years, from 1971 to 2003 to do our 1st 10,000 It took ~10 years from 1993 to 2003 to grow from 100 eBooks to 10,100 It took ~3 years from 2001 to 2004 for our last 10,000 [From 2,808 eBooks in September, 2001 to 12,808 eBooks in May, 2004] *** [The Newsletter is now being sent in two sections, so you can directly go to the portions you find most interesting: 1. Founder's Comments, News, Notes & Queries, and 2. Weekly eBook Update Listing.] Today, and until we actually GET a new Newsletter editor who want to do another portion, there will be only 2 parts. . .this is Part 1, and the eBook listings in Part 2 [New Project Gutenberg Documents]. [Since we are between Newsletter editors, these 2 parts may undergo a few changes while we are finding a new Newsletter editor. Email us: hart@pobox.com and gbnewby@pglaf.org if you would like to volunteer.] This is Michael Hart's "Founder's Comments" section of the Newsletter Over Our 32 21/52 Year History, We Have Now Averaged About 390 eBooks/Yr And This Year Averaged Over That Same New eBook Level. . .PER MONTH!!!!! We Are Averaging About 380 eBooks Per Month This Year 91 per week *** The Newest Project Gutenberg Site: Beauregard Parish Library (DeRidder, Louisiana) http://library.beau.org/gutenberg "The Beauregard Parish Library is excited to be the first public library to mirror the Gutenberg site as well as the only listed mirror in Louisiana. We are especially excited about the mp3 project. What a wonderful service to those who have difficulty using print materials." *** HOT Requests!!! 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To see some of what we have now, please see: ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/images *** In this issue of the Project Gutenberg Weekly newsletter: - Intro (above) - New Site (above) - Hot Requests (above) - Requests For Assistance - 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 48 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright - Headline News from NewsScan and Edupage - Information about mailing lists *** Requests For Assistance _I_ am still interested in a DVD that has an actual total of 10,000 eBooks. . .or more. . .mostly for PR purposes-- if someone would be willing to make one. *** PROJECT GUTENBERG IS SEEKING LEGAL BEAGLES Project Gutenberg is seeking (volunteer) lawyers. We have regular needs for intellectual property legal advice (both US and international) and other areas. Please email Project Gutenberg's CEO, Greg Newby <gbnewby AT pglaf.org> , if you can help. This is much more important than many of us realize! *** Progress Report In the first 5.00 months of this year, we produced 1901 new eBooks. It took us from July 1971 to Jan 1999 to produce our first 1,901 eBooks! That's 21 WEEKS as Compared to ~28 Years! 48 New eBooks This Week 60 New eBooks Last Week 227 New eBooks This Month [May] 380 Average Per Month in 2004 355 Average Per Month in 2003 203 Average Per Month in 2002 103 Average Per Month in 2001 1901 New eBooks in 2004 4164 New eBooks in 2003 2441 New eBooks in 2002 1240 New eBooks in 2001 ==== 9746 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001 That's Only 40.50 Months! 12,808 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks 8,075 eBooks This Week Last Year ==== 4,733 New eBooks In Last 12 Months 359 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia We're still keeping up with Moore's Law! Moore's Law 12 month percentage = 100% Moore's Law 18 month percentage = 98% [100% of Moore's Law = doubling every 18 months] Check out our website at 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 catalog. eBooks are posted throughout the week. You can even get daily lists. Info on subscribing to daily, weekly, monthly Newsletters, listservs: http://gutenberg.net/subs.shtml *** FLASHBACK!!! 1901 New eBooks So Far in 2004 It took us ~28 years for the first 1901 ! That's the 5.00 MONTHS of 2004 as Compared to ~28 YEARS!!! Here Is A Sample Of What Books Were Being Done Around #1901 Oct 1999 Grandfather's Chair, by Nathaniel Hawthorne[NH #8][gfchrxxx.xxx] 1926 Oct 1999 Droll Stories [V. 1], by Honore de Balzac[HdB #82][1drllxxx.xxx] 1925 Oct 1999 Many Voices, by E. Nesbit [Poems] [E. Nesbit #8][mnyvcxxx.xxx] 1924 Oct 1999 The Poisoned Pen by, Arthur B. Reeve [tppenxxx.xxx] 1923 Oct 1999 Deirdre of the Sorrows, by J. M. Synge [Synge #7][drdrexxx.xxx] 1922 [This one is a play, and is in markup format, need a volunteer to unmark it.] Oct 1999 The Chouans, by Honore de Balzac [de Balzac #81] [chounxxx.xxx] 1921 Oct 1999 Billy Baxter's Letters, By William J. Kountz, Jr. [bbxtlxxx.xxx] 1920 Oct 1999 Ballads, by Horatio Alger, Jr. [H. Alger Jr. #10][blldsxxx.xxx] 1919 Oct 1999 Long Odds, by H. Rider Haggard [H. R. Haggard #8][loddsxxx.xxx] 1918 Oct 1999 The Queen of Hearts, by Wilkie Collins[Collins#21][qnhrtxxx.xxx] 1917 Oct 1999 The Great Stone Face, et. al. Nathaniel Hawthorne [totwmxxx.xxx] 1916 Oct 1999 Second Thoughts of An Idle Fellow, by Jerome [#14][scthkxxx.xxx] 1915 Oct 1999 [Reserved for WWI] [ xxx.xxx] 1914* Oct 1999 The Drums Of Jeopardy, by Harold MacGrath [jprdyxxx.xxx] 1913 Oct 1999 The Muse of the Department, by de Balzac [HdB #80][msdptxxx.xxx] 1912 Oct 1999 Concerning Christian Liberty, by Martin Luther[#6][clbtyxxx.xxx] 1911 Sep 1999 La Tulipe Noire, by Alexandre Dumas[Pere#6/French][tlpnrxxx.xxx] 1910 [Language: French] (Note: abridged edition) (See Also: #965, Full-length English Edition) Sep 1999 Darwin and Modern Science, by A.C. Seward[50th Yr][drwnmxxx.xxx] 1909 Sep 1999 Her Prairie Knight, by B. M. Bower[B.M. Bower #10][hrprkxxx.xxx] 1908 Sep 1999 Rowdy of the Cross L, by B. M. Bower [BM Bower #9][rowdyxxx.xxx] 1907 Sep 1999 Erewhon (Revised Edition), by Samuel Butler [erwhnxxx.xxx] 1906 Sep 1999 The Governess [Female Academy], by Sarah Fielding [gvrnsxxx.xxx] 1905 Sep 1999 Life & Perambulations of a Mouse by Dorothy Kilner[lpoamxxx.xxx] 1904 Sep 1999 Everybody's Guide to Money Matters, by Wm. Cotton [egtmmxxx.xxx] 1903 Sep 1999 The Old Peabody Pew by Kate Douglas Wiggin[KDW#13][oldpwxxx.xxx] 1902 Sep 1999 The Old Peabody Pew by Kate Douglas Wiggin[KDW#13][oldpwxxx.xxx] 1902 Sep 1999 Secret of the Woods, by William J. Long [sctwdxxx.xxx] 1901 Sep 1999 Typee, by Herman Melville [Herman Melville #2][typeexxx.xxx] 1900 Sep 1999 The Village Rector, by Honore de Balzac[Balzac#79][vrctrxxx.xxx] 1899 .(Note: filename vrctrxxx.xxx is also used for a eBook #1329 in etext98) Sep 1999 Bunyan Characters (2nd Series), by Alex. Whyte #2 [2bnchxxx.xxx] 1886 Sep 1999 Bunyan Characters (1st Series), by Alex. Whyte #1 [1bnchxxx.xxx] 1885 Sep 1999 The Exiles, by Honore de Balzac [H de Balzac #77][xilesxxx.xxx] 1884 Sep 1999 The Wife, et al, by Anton Chekhov [Chekhov #14][twifexxx.xxx] 1883 Sep 1999 The Young Forester, by Zane Grey [Zane Grey #9][yn4stxxx.xxx] 1882 Sep 1999 The Call of the Canyon, by Zane Grey[Zane Grey #8][tcotcxxx.xxx] 1881 Sep 1999 The Pathfinder, by James Fenimore Cooper[Cooper#2][pthfnxxx.xxx] 1880 *** Today Is Day #147 of 2004 This Completes Week #21 and Month #5.00 216 Days/32 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year] 7188 Books To Go To #20,000 [Our production year begins/ends 1st Wednesday of the month/year] 90 Weekly Average in 2004 79 Weekly Average in 2003 47 Weekly Average in 2002 24 Weekly Average in 2001 41 Only 41 Numbers Left On Our Reserved Numbers list [Used to be well over 100] *** Continuing Requests For Assistance: Project Gutenberg--Canada is now starting up!!! 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, as it looks as if the Australian copyright law is falling victim to the new "Economic Warfare" being waged by the World Intellectual Property Organization and various billionaire copyright holders around the world. email: James Linden <jlinden@pglaf.org> *** 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://www.pgdp.net for more information about how you can help a lot, by simply proofreading just a few pages per day, or more. 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For more information, including several other ways to donate, go to http://gutenberg.net/donation.html or email donate@gutenberg.net *** HOW TO GET EBOOKS FROM OUR MIRROR SITES http://www.gutenberg.net allows searching by title, author, language and subject. Mirrors (copies) of the complete collection are available around the world. To find the sites nearest you, go to: http://gutenberg.net/list --"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 file's name you want. Try: http://gutenberg.net/etext04 or ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext04 and look for the first five letters of the file's name. 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 21 weeks of this year, we have produced 1901 new eBooks. It took us from 1971 to 1999 to produce our FIRST 1901 eBooks!!! That's 21 WEEKS as Compared to ~28 YEARS!!! With 12,808 eBooks online as of June 02, 2004 it now takes an average of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.78 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 1.5% of the world's population! This "cost" is down from about $1.24 when we had 7803 eBooks A Year Ago Can you imagine ~12,800 books each costing ~$.45 less a year later??? Or. . .would this say it better? Can you imagine ~12,800 books each costing 1/3 less a year later??? At 12,808 eBooks in 32 Years and 11.00 Months We Averaged 389 Per Year [We do about that each month these days!] 32.4 Per Month 1.06 Per Day At 1901 eBooks Done In The 147 Days Of 2004 We Averaged 13 Per Day 90 Per Week 390 Per Month The production statistics are calculated based on full weeks' production; each production-week starts/ends Wednesday noon, starts with the first Wednesday of January. January 7th was the first Wednesday of 2004, and thus ended PG's production year of 2003 and began the production year of 2004 at noon. This year there will be 52 Wednesdays, thus no extra week. ***Headline News*** [PG Editor's Comments In Brackets] >From NewsScan: NEC PLEADS GUILTY IN E-RATE FRAUD INVESTIGATION [Schools Defrauded, more below in Edupage section] NEC Business Network Solutions is pleading guilty to wire fraud and antitrust violation, and the company has agreed to $20.7 million in fines and restitution for its part in the E-Rate program, the federal program designed to help schools participate in the information age. Gerald P. Kenney, general counsel of NEC America, said: "We made mistakes with E-Rate. We've acknowledged and accepted responsibility for those mistakes, cooperated fully with the government and taken action to ensure that these problems can't happen again." The investigation of misconduct in the E-Rate program is on-going, and is expected to uncover additional cases of fraud by other large information technology vendors. Policy analyst John Dunbar of the Center for Public Integrity says: "Schools are being promised million-dollar systems when a system costing $10,000 would make more sense. That's one of the flaws of the system. If the schools had vested interest in making sure that the money was being spent wisely, then it wouldn't be so easy to defraud the program." (New York Times 28 May 2004) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/28/technology/28net.html CALIFORNIA VERSUS OFFSHORING [The 5th Largest Economy in the World Has It's Own Policies For Outsourcing and Anti-Globalization] The California Assembly has approved a bill that would ban state contractors from offshoring jobs and require all contractors and subcontractors to certify that the "contract work will be performed by people in the state of California." The bill applies only to contracts paid for with state tax money. Assemblyman John Campbell, a Republican, expressed his opposition for the bill defended outsourcing jobs as a way of keeping contracts cheaper: "What you call outsourcing is capital going to its most efficient place, and when capital goes to its most efficient place, we all benefit." (AP/San Jose Mercury News 27 May 2004) http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/8777193.htm U.S. GOV'T AGENCIES ENGAGED IN WIDESPREAD 'DATA MINING' [More below in Edupage section] A survey of U.S. government agencies has uncovered widespread data mining activities, through more than 120 programs that collect and analyze large amounts of personal data such as names, e-mail addresses, Social Security numbers and driver's license information. The survey, conducted by the General Accounting Office, identified 52 federal agencies that routinely comb through citizens' data, and because the GAO figures exclude most classified projects, the extent of intrusion into personal privacy could be much higher. Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), who requested the report, said: "I am disturbed by the high number of data mining activities in the federal government involving personal information. The government collects and uses Americans' personal information and shares it with other agencies to an astonishing degree, raising serious privacy concerns." An advisory committee to the Pentagon chaired by former FCC chairman Newton Minow, has recommended that federal agencies generally should be required to obtain court approval "before engaging in data mining with personally identifiable information" on U.S. citizens. It also recommended that agencies should, if possible, strip out all personal identifying information before working with such data. (New York Times 27 May 2004) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/27/national/27privacy.html WILL ISPs DISCRIMINATE AGAINST COMPETITORS? [This already might be happening with email: I have noticed that some emails sent to me sit for hours, sometimes as long as from lunch to dinner, before even getting out of the ISP from which they are sent.] High-speed Internet providers have the capability to recognize the data packets that traverse their systems and prioritize them, so that theoretically, they could reward their own customers with a little extra speed to the detriment of competitors routing traffic along their networks. Although there's no evidence that broadband providers have ever engaged in this kind of manipulation, a number of tech companies last year asked the Federal Communications Commission to consider establishing principles that would encourage "network neutrality." Their concerns were reignited recently by a controversial report issued by Yankee Group that predicted small, independent VoIP (Internet telephony) providers like Vonage could be forced out of business if broadband ISPs begin bundling VoIP service with their Internet access or begin slowing down Vonage customers' service in favor of their own subscribers. "Unless Vonage pays fees to the network provider, there is no reason the operator should not make the service a lower priority on the network," predicted the Yankee Group report. Vonage CEO Jeffrey Citron responded, "If that happens in this world, the value of the Internet would instantaneously be massively devalued." Citron says he hates the idea of government regulation but in this case it might be appropriate for regulators to spell out what constitutes a minimum level of broadband service. (Washington Post 27 May 2004) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58685-2004May26.html CHASKA, MINNESOTA PLANS CITY-WIDE 'HOT SPOT' [Many places already offer free hot spots, such as airports, etc.] Chaska, Minnesota is raising the bar on ubiquitous wireless connectivity -- the whole city will soon be blanketed by a Wi-Fi hot-spot and city officials plan to offer wireless Internet access as a municipal service for about $16 per month for home users. Chaska anticipates that about 2,000 of its 18,000 residents will take advantage of the service, creating a "connected community," says the city's information-systems manager, Bradley Mayer. The Wi-Fi network will also double as a public safety tool, with the local police force adapting squad cars to be Wi-Fi friendly. The network will be built by deploying about 200 wireless-networking devices over a 12- to 13-square-mile area, says Mayer. (AP 26 May 2004) http://apnews.excite.com/article/20040527/D82QJI701.html FINALLY, DECENT COMPUTER DISPLAYS -- IF YOU CAN WAIT TILL 2034 Usability expert Jakob Nielsen says that by 2034, "we'll finally get decent computer displays, with a resolution of about 20,000 pixels by 10,000 pixels (as opposed to the miserly 2048 pixels by 1536 pixels on my current monitor)." He also says that people will have no problem coming up with ways to use the massive storage capability of future machines, predicting that "we'll use half the storage space to index all our information so that we can search it instantly." Of course, we'll also have to devote a significant amount of computer power to battling ever-bolder hack attacks and to enabling such things as self-healing software, which can root out bugs and adapt to changing environments. Computer games will become more engaging and less linear than today's story lines, and computer interaction styles will include gestures, physical interfaces and multidevice interfaces. "Certainly, our personal computer will remember anything we've ever seen or done online," says Nielsen. "A complete HDTV record of every waking hour of your life will consume 2% of your hard disk." (CNet News.com 27 May 2004) http://news.com.com/2010-1001-5221124.html ACCENTURE BID WINS HOMELAND SECURITY PROJECT The Department of Homeland Security has awarded Accenture LLP a contract worth up to $10 billion to expand a program called "U.S. Visit" designed to track millions of foreign visitors from the time they arrive until the time they leave. The data collected by the system includes digital photographs and fingerprints, and is used to help authorities capture suspected terrorists and criminals. Department of Homeland undersecretary Asa Hutchinson say, "I don't think you could overstate the impact of this responsibility, in terms of security of our nation. If you look at the 9/11 terrorists, they came here in violation of our immigration laws." The sub- contractors in the Accenture team include AT&T, Dell, and KBR, and 26 others. (Washinton Post 2 Jun 2004) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7961-2004Jun1.html SONY ABANDONS PDA IN FAVOR OF ADVANCED CELL PHONES Sony plans to stop selling new personal digital assistants outside of Japan this year, a move that will decrease the number of new PDAs using the Palm operating system made by PalmSource. Sony says its Clie handhelds were unable to serve as a mobile device that links content and hardware: "We consider mobile devices a key aspect of our strategy to converge contents like music, movies and games with hardware and since the Clie functions as a personal organizer, we wanted to refocus our efforts." The company will replace the Clie line with new advanced handsets from Sony Erricsson (Sony's cell phone venture with Sweden's Ericsson) and a new handheld game machine, the PlayStation Portable (PSP) designed to play games, movies and music. Industry analysts believe that Sony's decision to abandon the Clie will have the effect of reducing PalmSources's dominant position in the handheld software market. Alex Slawsby of IDC says: "As mobile phones bring on board more and more capabilities of the PDA, there is a growing segment of consumers that would just rather buy a phone and only carry one device." (New York Times 2 Jun 2004) http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/technology/tech-tech-sony-clie.html DETECTIVES FOLLOW THE MONEY TRAIL TO TACKLE SPAM It seems like spammers have been working overtime since the federal antispam legislation took effect Jan.1, and the government is now turning away from technical fixes offered by software engineers in favor of private investigators' expertise to boost their efforts to stem the deluge of unsolicited e-mail. In an unusual arrangement, the Direct Marketing Association has paid $500,000 to hire 15 investigators to work alongside the FBI agents and other government officials in a program known as Project Slam-Spam. The project has built a case against 50 spammers, mostly by following the money trail and relying on informants. "Spammers are more than willing to rat each other out," says Microsoft investigator Sterling McBride. "The most useful information is who pays for various aspects of the spam operation," says attorney David Bateman, who represents Microsoft in spam cases. "To spam, you need four or five things -- a hosting service, a domain name, mailing software, mailing lists and so on. Each one you have to purchase from someone." Microsoft has filed 53 civil cases against spammers in the last 15 months, based on the work of its investigation team. "The real key is trying to figure out how to connect the virtual world" with "someone you can hold responsible for this," says McBride. Once you've nailed that down, "you can use all the tools of a normal investigation." (New York Times 31 May 2004) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/31/technology/31spam.html ONLINE NEWSPAPER READERSHIP UP 350% OVER 5 YEARS The audience for online versions of newspapers has grown 350% over the past five years, according to the World Association of Newspapers, which notes that while print circulation figures have declined in mature markets like Europe and the U.S., they are sharply up in emerging markets like China and India. In Russia, the number of published dailies has nearly doubled in two years. WAN attributed the increase in online newspaper popularity to the growth of broadband in many countries, noting that in those countries where broadband Internet access is more readily available, people are watching TV less and surfing the Web more, both for news and for entertainment. (BBC News 1 Jun 2004) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3767267.stm 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 NEC ADMITS TO FRAUD IN E-RATE PROGRAM The ongoing investigation into the troubled E-Rate program has resulted in a $20.7 million settlement with NEC Business Network Solutions, a subsidiary of computer maker NEC. Begun in 1996, the E-Rate program is a federal program, funded by a tax on phone bills, to provide funds predominantly to low-income and rural school districts for technology infrastructure. Allegations of fraud and mismanagement of the program surfaced several years ago. In the case of the NEC subsidiary, the company has admitted to selling the San Francisco Unified School District and several other districts much more equipment than they needed and to charging the E-Rate program significantly more than the equipment cost. Other companies involved in the E-Rate program have been charged with bribing school officials to forgo competitive bidding on technology projects. New York Times, 28 May 2004 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/28/technology/28net.html GAO FINDS WIDESPREAD DATA MINING A report from the General Accounting Office (GAO) indicates that a broad range of federal agencies are involved in data-mining programs, designed primarily to improve the performance or services of that agency. Programs that use data mining to fight terrorism accounted for the smallest number of the 199 programs identified by the GAO at 52 different federal agencies. Of the nearly 200 programs listed, 122 use personally identifiable information, according to the GAO. Fifty-four of the programs use data supplied by private companies, including credit card companies, and in 77 of the programs, federal agencies share information with one another. The Defense Department sponsors the largest number of data-mining programs. Coinciding with the GAO's report, the Center for Democracy and Technology and the Heritage Foundation released their recommendations for how data-mining programs can be used effectively without sacrificing the privacy of individuals. The groups' report urges the federal government to "anonymize" data to remove personally identifiable information; to build secure systems that prevent unauthorized access to information; and to include tools that record instances of unauthorized access or misuse of information. Wired News, 27 May 2004 http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,63623,00.html BUFFALO SPAMMER GETS JAIL TIME A judge in New York this week sentenced Howard Carmack, the so-called Buffalo Spammer, to the maximum three-and-a-half to seven years in prison under the state's new identity theft statute. Carmack was charged with setting up hundreds of e-mail accounts under false or stolen identities and sending 850 million spam e-mails through those accounts. Internet service provider EarthLink previously won a $16.4 million civil judgment against Carmack, though the company has yet to collect any money from Carmack. At his sentencing, Carmack said his prosecution was politically motivated and that he didn't see any victims of his actions. In response, Judge Michael D'Amico said, "I'm having a heck of a time figuring out why you think everybody is unfair to you," telling Carmack he caused a lot of harm to many people. Wall Street Journal, 27 May 2004 (sub. req'd) http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108568739201123150,00.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 *** More Headline News Mostly Avoided By The Major U.S. Media HARRY POTTER GOES WITH HIGH-TECH NIGHT VISION GOGGLES Copyright issues continue to dominate the economy, while media who rely on copyrights for extending profits are continuing their policies of non-coverage of this issue. Bringing this a little more to the forefront, at least for the World Premiere Week of the new Harry Potter movie, is the story that Warner Bros. sent night vision goggles to the theater owners and insisted that ushers monitor the audience for the entire 2 hours and 22 minutes of the movie. This is part of a multi-million dollar effort for copyright money to continue to dominate the economy, a change from a time when "durable goods" dominated. The willingness of Warner Bros. to spend this kind of money to keep people from copying this movie is only the highest visibility issue of hundreds of such programs. Another item about the Harry Potter movies is that each one is marked to identify where any such copy was made, and perhaps litigation would be filed against a theater owner who failed to protect the copyright, as it appears that many such copies are made by theater insiders. [For some reason radio seems more willing to cover this issue than television, and it would also appear that most sources I heard originated from outside the U.S.] *** And just a personal note for those who noticed I wasn't on line as much as normal yesterday. . .I spent much of the day playing lumberjack Paul Bunyan around my house, cutting down a tree that was bouncing off my house repeatedly during the big storm the night before and eventually landing on the power lines. In addition, the events surrounding this appear to have blown one of the power supplies I use on this computer [this is the same one you've heard from me on for the last nearly 20 years. . .at least it's in the same place and looks about the same, though parts come and go. . .for a while I was afraid this might be the time I could not fix it in the same day and get back online, especially after knocking myself out for hours earlier to get the power line cleared. However, the Muse is still looking out for me, and I got back on line by around 3PM, and then went to sleep. [That big red spot on the middle of the weather maps a while back. . .that's where I live. . .tornado alley. I've been in this house 19 years or so, and this is the second time for some serious wind damage. In previous residence I did have a window blown in, but nothing like what has happened to some of my friends. My repairs are usually one day events. Everything is fine, though the muscles are complaining a bit. Thanks to those who expressed concern. Michael *** 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 to subscribe directly by yourself, go to: http://gutenberg.net/subs.shtml and 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 to subscribe directly by yourself, go to: http://gutenberg.net/subs.shtml *** 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 help@pglaf.org 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_2004_06_02_part_1.txt
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