TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home |
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TeleRead calls for well-stocked national digital libraries in the U.S. and elsewhere. TeleRead's moderator is David Rothman (dr@teleread.org). For occasional highlights from this blog, join the TeleRead Mailing List.
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Sunday, July 28, 2002
So this is the reason for copyright extension?
"Brand-Name Authors Hire Writers to Flesh Out Their Bare-Bones Stories" - Headline, Washington Post, July 23. The TeleRead take: Hollywood is giving us more and more sequels at the expense of orginal, "normal" movies. In one form or another, the MBAs and accounts are winning. Will book-publishing sink to Hollywood's level? And in the end, will "Robert Ludlum" and "Tom Clancy" live on more as brand names than as the names of actual writers? Another argument for a new business model.
"The New Napsters": Fortune's perspective "There's more free downloading of music than ever. The big labels hate it--but shutting down the outlaw networks won't be so easy this time." - Headline on article by Melanie Warner in Fortune, August 12. The TeleRead take: The magazine goes on to say: "Napster operated with central servers that tracked and controlled the transfer of files between users, but Kazaa, Grokster, and Morpheus are completely decentralized" and thus will be harder to shut down. It notes that the industry has bungled "on perhaps the most important front: creating Internet services that people actually like for legitimately licensed music." Exactly! Just when are the big music companies going to wake up? They continue to offer a terrific negative examples for major book-publishers, which, just like the record labels, don't offer the most reasonable prices on online products. An aside: Maybe it's because the old Time Warner people hate the guts of the AOL upstarts, but some of the most informative reporting on AOL Time Warner continues to come from none other than Fortune. Presumably, by the way, Melanie Warner's last name is merely a coincidence (and besides, hey, that was a merger or so ago). Any readers know? Meanwhile see our followup on Howard Berman's dangerous bill to allow the big boys to hack file-sharing sites.
Saturday, July 27, 2002
E-Books coming to Russian schools
"A group of schoolchildren will say goodbye to some of their heavy old textbooks this fall, instead bringing to school a few computer disks. Prosveshcheniye-MEDIA, a subsidiary of the Prosveshcheniye publishing house, is developing the multimedia disks, or electronic textbooks, which will be introduced for the first time this September in science and history classes at around 100 elementary schools equipped with computers throughout the country, including 12 in Moscow." - Moscow Times, July 23. The TeleRead take: The story raises excellent questions, such as how well the teachers will be prepared. It does not get into issues such as tablet-style machines vs. desktop PCs. TeleRead would address those matters.
Dave Winer on crooked congressman's virus bill "Questions questions questions. Can a small record label run a virus too, or just the monopolies? How about a software company? How about the Department of Justice? Can they install a virus on our systems to look for terrorism and report it back to the FBI? Do you think that would be constitutional? What if there's a conflict between" a record label's virus and a car dealer's virus, which one survives? Can a record label rent space in its virus to do someone else's bidding?..." - Dave Winer, Scripting News, July 26, discussing Rep. Howard Berman's bill. The TeleRead take: Dave Winer and others are trying to organize Netfolks to vote these crooks out of office. It would then be fun to see how many nanoseconds elapsed before Berman and the rest got job offers from entertainment conglomerates--to work for them in a more open way. Followup, July 28: Winer and Ed Cone note that Howard Berman is apparently running unopposed, but that another congressman with an interest in these matters, Howard Coble, may be approachable--a good thing since Coble "got 91 percent of the vote in 2001." Ed Cone says: "Individual liberty is part of Coble's message, and big corporations like the ones who bankroll him aren't very popular just now. He has another election in two years, and even with the recent gerrymandering that strengthens his political base he would have to pay attention to a concerted information campaign on this issue."
Friday, July 26, 2002
TeleRead and neighborhood libraries
One of the main precepts of TeleRead is that a national digital library system should strengthen rather than replace local libraries--should allow them to set up links and search engines that help local people. Neighborhood libraries also are invaluable as meeting places and potentially as sources of training and other tech-related help. Now comes an article in the Christian Science Monitor telling how the Web has actually been a boon for local libraries--since people want a human touch in coping with the masses of information available through the Net. More money is actually going for local library construction: "Last year, $686 million was spent on library construction – the second-highest dollar total ever spent, and a 15 percent increase over a decade ago, American Library Association data shows. Aside from the construction of 80 new libraries, 132 existing ones underwent renovations: creating new space, wiring old buildings for high-speed Internet access, and buying computers." Still, it isn't as if the typical library is swimming in cash. A well-stocked national digital library system would be an excellent way to stretch resources. The other fact to consider is that as hardware improves and broadband connections become standard, then more people will be using technological resources at home. (Via Library Stuff.)
AOL Time Warner: The double shafting I pulled out of just about all my AOL Time shares at around $16, far above yesterday's close at $9.64, but I should have done so much earlier. The really nefarious thing about the post-merger AOL was that it once seemed a reasonable hedge against corporately promoted copyright laws that could wreak havoc on Net-oriented writers and editors like me. I believed that the officers of the company would be at least somewhat responsible about earnings and revenue forecasts, and that the share prices would not fluctuate like those of a dotty dotcom. Given these uncertain times, it is understandable for media conglomerates to be off-target in their estimates, but the issue for AOL Time Warner went beyond that--to the question of just how misleading the numbers were. Hence the fond interest of the Washington Post (perhaps jealous because it missed out on the chance to buy AOL) and the SEC. The good news is that the normal checks and balances might be working--perhaps I'll even risk a few hard-earned dollars because the price is so far down and I need to look ahead for retirement. Meanwhile, however, AOL has shafted me in two ways, first through its support for anti-Net copyright policies and second through its bookkeeping. I take it for granted that corporate executives are not monks. But AOL surpassed all expectations. And even now the scandals could be far from over. That $9.64 bargain could easily turn into a $5 one, regardless of the value of Time Warner assets. This greatly and deservedly hated conglomerate has been a wealth-drainer for the common investor, a piggybank for its top managers. The TeleRead take: AOL is a splendid example of the desirability of a library-style distribution system that could better help creators and shareholders keep track of actual revenues. Independent auditors are not enough. The irony is that a library approach might actually build the value of the conglomerates' stock--by allowing investors to get a better handle on revenues.
Bought congressman introduces net.hostile legislation The stockmarket is a mess, senior citizens are threatened by high drug costs, terrorists may eventually nuke Washington, but our bought pols can still find time to do Hollywood's bidding. Rep. Howard Berman, a property of AOL Time Warner and other stellar corporate citizens, Thursday introduced his bill to let content-providers use hacker-style tactics against file-sharing sites. The AP notes that Berman "represents part of Hollywood and is the House's single largest recipient of political donations from the entertainment industry." Also see a Wired News story telling how the bill would give special breaks to AOL Time Warner and similar conglomerate that used instant-message systems to allow file trading. At times like this even the most die-hard liberal--I'm one--wants to scream and become a libertarian in the face of the impending abuse of governmental power.
ACLU fighting Digital Millennium Copyright Act "The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit Tuesday challenging a controversial 1998 federal law that forbids the dissemination of information that could be used to bypass copy-protection schemes." - AP, July 25, via the Nando Times. The TeleRead take: The ACLU correctly argues that the law threatens freedom of speech among those researching protection technology.
Thursday, July 25, 2002
"Deep Linking Takes Another Blow"
"Using a search engine to locate stories on newspapers' sites violates European Union law, according to a recent ruling by judges in Munich's Upper Court." - Wired News, July 25. The TeleRead take: Let's hope this contagion is wiped out before it reaches and affects the U.S. in a serious way. Once again, of course, the press is emerging is a major enemy of freedom of the press.
Corporations vs. artists: The "transparency" issue "Singers and entertainment attorneys criticized California's $41 billion recording industry Tuesday, testifying that it routinely underreports royalties and cheats artists of millions of dollars." - July 23 AP story out of Sacramento. The TeleRead take: Well, so much for the recording industry as a defender of the creative. Old news, alas. The above item reinforces our comment made elsewhere that the best-lawyered tend to prevail over the most deserving. Meanwhile, in a related vein, let it be noted that the SEC is investigating bookkeeping at AOL Time Warner to see if the company has misrepresented itself to shareholders. Too bad we lack a Creative Exchange Commission to enforce the rights of individual creators dealing with huge conglomerates. On Wall Street, of course, the big buzzword these days is "transparency of earnings," and a similar concept for the protection of creators wouldn't exactly hurt. At least with a TeleRead-style approach in place, it would be easier for creators to track revenue. Often, savvy agents for creative people might end up insisting that a TeleRead distribution system be used to discourage the very kind of chicanery to which the singers refer. Who else would benefit from the additional openness? None other than the shareholders of AOL and the like.
Disenchanted's copyright idea: "So bill me!" Imagine "a world where everybody assumes they have the right to use intellectual property as they please, and the creator of the work has the burden of discovering that use of her property and billing for it....It can work because most of the infrastructure we need is already in place and paid for." - Disenchanted, July 23, 2002. The TeleRead take: Wonderful to see Disenchanted writing up the failings of the present copyright system, but the above proposal won't fly. Just ask musicians, writers and artists who've been in extended copyright wars with large conglomerates. The real benefits will go in the end to those with the best legal teams. Inherently the idea might seem good. But, at least here in the States, that would be before our bought Congress went to work to favor the companies with the biggest legal budgets. On the positive, the Disenchanted idea does have the advantage of allowing creators to take advantage of the infrastructures of those they try to bill. But for interested content providers, a well-stocked national digital library system could itself help supply the infrastructure--one that would work with the existing Web. Under TeleRead, provisions would even be in place for file sharing, with a privacy-respecting system of tracking in place. Creators would be able to collect payments from users or from a national digital library fund, depending on whether the works were covered. Providers of content would participate voluntarily in the distribution and royalty systems. The fund, supported through a mix of public and private resources, would not be a panacea, but at least it would be a start and would inject new, badly needed sources of revenue into book publishing and other areas (though books would be the main focus).
Monday, July 22, 2002
Children's books online
Think e-books are dead? Check out these stats E-books are hardly taking the world by storm, but the picture just isn't as gloomy as the doomsters claim. From a press release from the Open eBook Forum: --Random House, Inc.'s eBook revenues doubled year-over-year in 2001 and during the latest quarter ending in March, revenues were the highest since the company began selling eBooks in 1998. --HarperCollins' eBook imprint, PerfectBound, has sold more eBooks in the first five months of 2002 than in all of 2001. --Average monthly downloads of Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader have increased by approximately 70% from 2001 to 2002. --Simon & Schuster has seen double-digit growth in eBook sales from the first half of 2001 to the first half of 2002. --Over 5 million copies of Microsoft Reader have been distributed for use on desktop, notebook and Pocket PC systems. --Palm Digital Media reports that nearly 180,000 eBooks were sold in 2001, a more than 40% increase from 2000. --In 2002, McGraw-Hill Professional eBook sales are up 55% over the same period last year. The TeleRead take: And remember, these numbers don't include the many thousands of free e-books downloaded each week from groups such as Project Gutenberg.
Sunday, July 21, 2002
Principals and E-Books
"It is not so important that principals master the latest toys and gadgets--rather that they show an appreciation for the challenges facing teachers and that they become knowledgeable about the best ways to use these tools to improve reading, reasoning, writing and communication." - Leading by Example: The High Touch High Tech Principal, by Jamie McKenzie in the Summer 2002 issue of From Now on--published originally in the Classroom Connect Newsletter. The TeleRead take: Exactly! Not so coincidentally, a principal was solidly behind a successful e-book project described in TeleRead Update 19.
TeleRead and rural areas Good article in the Washington Post today on the decline of rural America and the need for more sensible polices to encourage rural development. How to keep 'em down on the farm? With better telecommunications, in part--to help create more jobs. But that still does not address the content question. Imagine how a well-stocked national digitial library system could help narrow the gap between rural and urban libraries and their users. Attention, Senator Dorgan. The TeleRead approach certainly should be in your territory in more than one sense of the word.
Saturday, July 20, 2002
Copyright, content and the Pittman resignation
I'd never have confused Robert Pittman, AOL's departing COO, with John Perry Barlow. Pittman was and is a bottom-line guy just like Steve Case. Still, his departure from AOL is one more sign that the old Time Warner people are in control, and that has implications in the copyright war. It puts AOL more solidly than ever on the side of the big copyright holders at the expense of the online side (and in many cases the public). Of course Pittmann himself was a good example of the confusion at AOL. He actually came up with the malarkey that the country wasn't sufficiently ready for broadband--the very stuff that AOL should have been promoting by providing the right content, both new and from its well-stocked vaults. Meanwhile I couldn't agree more with those who challenged the logic of Pittman and colleagues and doubted that AOL could collect as much as $159 a month from broadband subscribers for movies and other add-ons. It's surrealistic. What would help would be reasonable prices. Users are willing to pay only so much for services beyond the basics, even the broadband basics. This is one illustration of the advantages of the library model. It would not single-handedly solve the problem of getting users to pay for content, but certainly would help through improved efficiencies and greater diversity.
Blog schedule TeleRead is an all-volunteer effort. That's good for the integrity of the cause, but can mean that postings will not be as frequent when life and business get in the way. I myself am fighting a mean deadline and coping with my wife's health problems. If you want to know when a daily schedule resumes, drop us an email and we'll put you on the light-volume TeleRead mailing list. Meanwhile, thanks to Amos Bokros, Raymundo Pedraza and other contributors. Guest essays are welcome, especially those that use news events to show the need for well-stocked national digital library systems in the States and elsewhere. See the TeleRead FAQ - David Rothman, dr@teleread.org
Thursday, July 18, 2002
Graphics vs. prose
"Computer graphics pose a serious threat to the primacy of writing. The relationship of word and image is changing in our culture, and this change is now related to the rise of computer graphics, as it was related to film and television in the past century." - Jay David Bolter, Paper given at Beloit College Symposium on the future of print culture; reprinted as "Virtual Silence" in Liberal Education v84 n3 1998, found via Newscan and my friend Rick Barry. The TeleRead take: This is exactly why a national digital library isn't enough. It needs to be a true part of the educational system and to be friendly to readers (through easily accessed material) as well as writers (through fair compensation, stable archives, stable links, and freedom of expression).
Tuesday, July 16, 2002
"Point. Click. Think?"
"On the good side, Net thinkers are said to generate work quickly and make connections easily. 'They are more in control of facts than we were 40 years ago,' says Bernard Cooperman, a history professor at the University of Maryland. But they also value information-gathering over deliberation, breadth over depth, and other people's arguments over their own." - Washington Post, July 16. The TeleRead take: Time to put modern, well-edited books on the Net en masse--and to change teaching methods so that students must think rather than just spew out facts?
Just in case you wondered why book sales are flat... "A cartoon in the New Yorker several weeks ago said it all. Two people are in a bookstore. One stands in front of a section called 'Self-Improvement,' while the other is browsing 'Self-Involvement.' That, exactly, summarizes the state of the art of literary fiction in these United States in the year 2002." - Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post, July 14, 2002. The TeleRead take: No industry needs "disruptive technology" more than publishing does.
Sunday, July 14, 2002
TeleRead, dotcoms and funding
Under the TeleRead vision, funding could come from a variety of private as well as public sources. TeleRead would be a logical destination for some of the money made during the dotcom bubble. But is there still some money around? Very definitely. Some dotcom people--not all, of course--wisely sold and diversified at the peak of the bubble. An interesting New York Times article today discusses these matters.
"Books unfold via e-mail installments" "EAST LANSING - The library is using a new method to get more people - especially busy people - to read books. The East Lansing Public Library offers a service that delivers a five-minute selection from a fiction or nonfiction book to a person's e-mail address. The service is free and the recipient doesn't have to be an East Lansing library cardholder." - Lansing State Journal, July 10, via Pocket PC eBooks Watch. The TeleRead take: Imagine the possibilities when many more thousands of books are online. With a TeleRead-style library, in fact, publishers could use tags to choose the locations and sizes of the excerpts. They could be sent out as often as readers desired. At any rate, excerpts make plenty of sense. What a great way for busy people to read within their schedules, then be jogged later on. Further information: Actually the East Lansing effort relies on a service called Chapter a Day.
TeleRead, the dotcoms and philanthropy TeleRead would use money from private as well as public sources, one way to promote more freedom of expression. Dotcom crash or not, some New Economy fortunes are still intact--not to mention Old Economy fortunes. The New York Times observes that "most entrepreneurs and executives seem to have found a middle ground: not as wealthy as they had hoped, but still cushioned by the fact that they sold their businesses not far from the top of the market."
Wooing teenage readers: The e-book angle "Librarians, locally and across the country, increasingly have been trying to appeal to teenage readers by offering a wider range of books, magazines and hybrid book-comic book "graphic" novels that have become popular in recent years. They even offer prizes and gift certificates." - Washington Post, July 13. The TeleRead take: Content shouldn't be the only issue here. What about the medium? As a group, screen-oriented teenagers are better prospects for e-books than, say, people in their 40s. And noted here earlier, an Ohio library is paying special attention to e-books for the young.
Friday, July 12, 2002
Hollywood vs. the rest of us: The newest sequel
"If you want to feed me bogus MP3 files to quell my lust for pirated tunes, that's fine as long as I download them of my own volition from your machine. If you break into my machine--or even wander into my machine unmolested through open ports--you're a trespasser. If you change anything, you're a vandal." - Alex Salkever in BusinessWeek Online, July 9, writing about the Orwellian anti-piracy scheme hatched by Rep. Howard Berman. The TeleRead take: Will Hollywood copyright greedsters and their allies someday be held in the same contempt that Enron and WorldCom executives are held today? Just what kind of post-government job might be in store for Howard Berman? The ever-escalating gall of of the copyright interests is surely the rival of the Enron variety. In this case, however, we're also talking about basic violations of Constitutional rights--violations to be purchased through massive campaign donations. I myself am pro-copyright, but people like Bermam really stretch me to the limit. He isn't a terrorist but in his own way is a long-term threat to the stability of the American political system. Could bin Laden be a secret backer of his? A reminder of the obvious: No, not everyone in Hollywood is a corrupt greedster. Ways must be found to compensate hardworking singers, actors, writers, directors and others. But e-thuggery in the Berman vein is not the answer.
Thursday, July 11, 2002
"Do libraries really need books?"
Scott Carlson asks that question in the July 12 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education. And the answers from some librarians aren't encouraging. Book circulation is hurting as more and more students go for information online, and meanwhile some new libraries are playing up multimedia rooms at the expense of the traditional stacks. The TeleRead take: Just a fraction of books today are digitized, and their publishers can't provide the archiving and link stability that a TeleRead-style library system could--to the benefit of society and publishing alike. Let's not neglect those stacks. May the Chronicle article and Michael Cader's recent observations serve as useful warnings to publishers. Both the book industry and libraries would benefit from new technology and new business models. That's what TeleRead is about. But it isn't here yet.
TeleRead and the stock market "The worst bear market in a generation deepened yesterday as stocks plunged for the second day, leaving the two major indexes at their lowest levels since 1997." - New York Times, July 11. The TeleRead take: We don't just need tougher laws on disclosure and corporate conduct, but also better ways to present the information to the public. A well-stocked national digital library system could help, especially if it were well-integrated with databases at the SEC and major stock exchanges.
Splinggs eerrrrors? Check out ieSpell--a blog-oriented spelling checker for Internet Explorer. Works great with Blogger and apparently with Radio. Dave Winer mentions it in Scripting News.
Libraries and wireless tech So what do wireless phones and handhelds mean in the grand scheme of things--whether data collection or e-books. Read Karl Bridges' piece in LIS News on The Wireless Future of Library Computing: Implications of Docomo Cell Phones. The TeleRead take: For years TeleRead has been keen on wireless. If nothing else, it can help close the Digital Divide, especially as the power of Wi-Fi-style tech goes up and the costs tumble. (Thanks for the pointer, Jenny.)
"A book fix for Web refugees" "The 'preview issue' of Bookmarks, based in San Mateo, began circulating this week. Its founders are two former software and technology company executives; its target is media-savvy Gen-Xers who haven't really read a book since college but are eager to reconnect with literature, though uncertain how to do it. Bookmarks--which bills itself as the journal 'for everyone who hasn't read everything'--is a glossy, slightly fizzy bimonthly survey of classic and contemporary literature designed for readers who like their graphic interfaces glitzy and their information in strobe-like bites. Think of it as a literary halfway house for recovering dot-comers and their codependents." - Los Angeles Times, July 10. The TeleRead take: What a much-needed project when so many newspapers are cutting back their book review sections! I hope that Bookmarks can establish relationships with Project Gutenberg and other public-domain providers of online classics--and also commercial publishers of all kinds, paper and electronic. While Bookmarks will appear on paper, it will also have an electronic incarnation. Meanwhile you can email the magazine for a free preview issue on pulped wood. Oh, and here's an instant clarification or correction. Commenting on the LA Times piece, the Bookmarks site says, "We're definitely not just for Gen-Xers."
Wednesday, July 10, 2002
Tough times ahead for publishing biz - Newsletter editor
The book industry isn't growing readers first enough. And print on demand and the Net-based marketing of used books could create more competition--and problems--for publishers. So says Michael Cader, a book-packager who writes the useful and readable PublishersLunch newsletter and who has spoken out before on the industry's sales problems. Check out a recent National Public Radio interview in RealAudio. Interestingly, Cader mentions the possibility of news business models such as subscriptions, and that's moving closer and closer to TeleRead territory. Tax money and private contributions contributions could not pay for all books. But subscription plans could help--a point made on our page How TeleRead Could Help Good Publishers Financially and in Other Ways. Note to NPR: No, no, no, we are not saying that NPR endorses TeleRead, though I myself confess to liking NPR. Of course, the network's terms-of-use page could stand more work in the links-policy area.
E-books as focused knowledge: The existing Web isn't enough One of the premises of TeleRead is that the Net by itself isn't enough--that schoolchildren and other library users need focused knowledge, not just the variety they can pick up by wandering from Web site to site. A well-stocked national digital library system would help endlessly. And so would better guidance for students on the matter of evaluating the information already on the Web. Now, via T.H.E. Journal, comes yet another study of Net use within K-12, and buried within it is the following: "The school's library curriculum did contain one lesson that let students decide if information was reliable or biased. One lesson, however, did not appear to be enough. As we observed students at work, we saw much more effort directed at finding answers to the questions rather than evaluating the quality of the information. This implies that teachers constantly need to encourage students to evaluate what they find. This should be a good thing as the process of evaluating information goes beyond the simple retrieval of facts." Quite correctly the study's authors, Drs. Douglas W. Green and Thomas O'Brien of Binghamton University, noted: "Staff development should show teachers how to create more situations where students engage in higher-order thinking. Simply showing teachers how to use computer applications and the Internet is not likely to accomplish that." That, of course, should also be true with e-books, not just the Net. Titlted "The Internet's Impact on Teacher Practice and Classroom Culture," the study also looked at Digital Divide-type issues and said: "Teachers in our study felt that students with Internet access at home have an advantage over students who do not. Even though it may not be possible to eliminate the entire advantage, teachers should provide additional time online to students who lack access at home without awarding higher grades for papers printed on home computer systems." TeleRead, of course, would address such issues by driving down the costs of machines fit for K-12 use and other applications.
Tuesday, July 09, 2002
A Mexican TeleRead supporter dislikes NPR's link policy
Raymundo Pedraza of Monterrey, Mexico, a TeleRead contributor who has worked in the past in radio journalism, offers his personal perspective in the article below on National Public Radio's linking policy. - DR “...the linking should not (a) suggest that NPR promotes or endorses any third party’s causes, ideas, Web sites, products or services...” From the “Terms of use” of NPR. The language here can be tricky. What is meant by "promotes or endorses"? Links by themselves, of course, do neither. NPR is weakening the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution with this part of its Web usage policy. If a radio station’s Web site doesn’t authorize certain people to indicate a specific virtual location--through coding on their own Web pages--it’s almost like ordering some radio listeners not to reveal the frequency on which they heard particular news or commentary. NPR isn't an official voice of the U.S. government, but it is "public" radio and should advance freedom of expression, not restrict linking. The above isn't the only example of how NPR wants the right to choose which listeners can use Web links to tell others where to find specific items. Here is another: “(b) Use NPR content for inappropriate commercial purposes.” Idem. In this case, who is going to be the judge who will decide what is appropriate commercial purpose and what is not? I hope that NPR does not have its own team of censors to make these decisions. Which takes me to the following: “NPR is an organization committed to the highest journalistic ethics and standards and to independent, noncommercial journalism, both in fact and appearance.” Idem. Who decides what is independent, noncommercial journalism? The same people who judge what is an appropriate commercial purpose and what is not? With these policies, National Public Radio risks setting itself against the intrinsic meaning of its own name.
More on the anti-link decision in Denmark "...legal rulings and the service terms of an increasing number of websites adamantly claim that links are nothing more than tools used to steal content, corrupt journalistic ethics and wreak havoc with corporate profits." Wired News, July 8. The TeleRead take: ...unless these same sites are linking to smaller sites without lawyers on retainer.
eBook Web's success--and some upbeat stats on e-books Wired News columnist M.J. Rose writes of eBook Web.org's first annniversary (happy birthday, Glenn!) and also supplies some upbeat stats on today's e-book biz: "McGraw-Hill reports that its e-book sales are up 55 percent over this time last year. "Palm Digital Media sold nearly 180,000 titles in 2001. "PerfectBound sold more e-books in the first five months of 2002 than in all of 2001. "More than 5 million copies of Microsoft Reader have been distributed for use on desktop, notebook and Pocket PC systems. "Simon & Schuster saw double-digit growth in e-book sales from the first quarter in 2001 to the first quarter in 2002." While TeleRead's library model would certainly help popularize e-books, it's clear that with or without TeleRead, e-books are not going away. A recent Washington Post story did not offer a balanced picture.
Cyberbooks: A satire with lessons for e-book boosters Amos Bokros, author of the article below, is TeleRead's Southeastern Coordinator. Also check out his essay on e-books for people with reading disabilities. - DR Ben Bova's Cyberbooks is a science-fiction novel that gives TeleRead supporters--and other e-book boosters--some concrete lessons in how to convince the public of the benefits. This 13-year-old satire is eerily on target. Cyberbooks is about an MIT software engineer by the name of Carl Lewis who invents the first electronic book. Carl is a naive idealist, and he thinks his invention will revolutionize the publishing industry and bring enormous benefits to all mankind. He reasons that e-books will make books inexpensive and available to everybody everywhere. E-books, as Carl sees it, will enable books to be published that are of high quality, but unfortunately not financially lucrative. A sad reality for businesspeole is that approximately 75 percent of all published books actually lose money for publishers, and that most go out of print or sell for a fraction of their original price. You can buy Cyberbooks today for less than $1--in fact, a penny (shipping cost excluded) if someone hasn't made a typo. Just as e-book boosters do in real life, Carl also sees other advantages in digital books. They would be good for blind people, visually impaired and those with reading disabilities because e-books are able to actually read out loud anything in a digital format. Also, e-books would help the environment because fewer trees would be used for paper. Many people in the established publishing industry, however, fear e-books. Publishers, book dealers, book store owners, distributors and printers feel that digital books will cost them their livelihood. And they try to thwart Carl. You might say that Carl is like the main character in The Man in The White Suit, an old black-and-white English movie about Sidney Stratton, who invents a cloth material that cannot be destroyed, become dirty or wear out. Sidney thinks his invention will bring all humanity to a New Age of abundant wealth besides making himself rich. But both the factory workers and factory owners oppose the new super cloth material. The factory workers feel they will lose their jobs because if clothes do not wear out people will not buy new clothes. Business people also feel that this new cloth material will destroy their businesses because they will not be able to create a need for people to buy more clothes. The climax of the movie is a united effort by both the proletariat and the bourgeoisie to crush the invention of this new material and prevent it from ever getting into the market. Carl Lewis's journey is similar to Sidney's as the e-book inventor travels through the darker regions of the book publishing industry. As the New York Post review of Cyberbooks put it, "Those unfamiliar with the publishing industry may think Bova exaggerates. Can booksellers really return all their merchandise for a full refund? Do editors spend their days at meetings discussing marketing categories and authors' track records, leaving no time to actually read manuscripts? Does the size of the advance paid to an author actually determine the sales of his book? Do giant oil conglomerates really take over publishing houses and then run them idiotically? Alas, the answer to all these questions is Yes." Fittingly, in Bova's satire, the plot mimics the cheap trashy novels that actually make money for the publishers. In Cyberbooks we see a power struggle within the industry. There is murder, romance, mystery and, of course, sex. Carl Lewis is forced to give up his dream of the electronic book after a successful effort to stop his invention by those with an invested interest in the established publishing industry. But he triumphs in the end. In my opinion, via Carl, Ben Bova unwittingly shows what TeleRead supporters and others must do to make e-books a common reality in the future. Here is a list of lessons from Cyberbooks that must be understood by anyone promoting electronic books. Lesson One: Do not present electronic books as a radical idea which will revolutionize society. Perhaps the biggest mistake former congressmen Newt Gingrich made was promoting a radical interpretation of Alvin Tofler's Third Wave to the American people. Americans and most of the world want slow reform. When any new technology is presented as a radical change, no matter how beneficial, most people will see it as a threat to an establish way of life. In convincing people of the benefits of electronic books, we should emphasize that electronic books will not replace printed books. Rather, e-books will be an addition to printed books. Paperbacks did not replace hardcover books. Libraries did not put bookstores out of business. In the same way television and video rental stores have not put movie theaters out of business. Each new technology only expands the market. Electronic books will not replace books for people happy with the established way books are printed and distributed. E-books are a method to help people who do not have quick inexpensive access to a variety of printed books. Therefore the emphasis at TeleRead should always be on how electronic books are a good for those who really need them. Such as those who are poor and live in areas without decent libraries. TeleRead should also emphasize how electronic books are good for those who are blind and have reading disabilities. In each of these cases we are pointing out how electronic books can help in areas where traditional books do not serve readers well. In all of these cases we are not threatening people with established interest in the status quo. Lesson Two: Along with not scaring people, we at TeleRead should not touch sensitive political quagmires which only alienates our mission from other groups. Let us take two examples. In the past while promoting the benefits of electronic books, I have pointed out that books could be available in all languages; with the development of powerful new translating software, any book could be translated into any language immediately. I suggested this could solve the dilemma of bilingual education. I quickly learned afterwards this was no way to make friends. For many people any idea even suggesting that bilingual education had some benefits would quickly kill any idea associated with it. Another benefit of electronic books that I used to emphasize was e-books not only could make books available to the blind, visually impaired, and those with reading disabilities, but also, via audio versions, help those who are functionally illiterate. I was accused of encouraging people to remain functionally illiterate and not learn to read. Nothing could be further from the truth. As a matter of fact e-books are being used as powerful tools to learn the skill of reading. Lesson Three: Along with not touching sensitive issues in regards to electronic books, TeleRead should never surrender itself to either the political left or the political right. The Teleread effort is bipartisan. Anyone who considers himself liberal, conservative, capitalist, or socialist should be able to support TeleRead. I am very happy that William F. Buckley Jr. supports our initiative. But I would be just as happy if anyone of the left would also support us. Extremist groups probably do not take much interest in TeleRead, and they shouldn't be encouraged to do so. I remember promoting TeleRead to radical environmentalists in California. I talked about how e-books could save trees and help the environment. These radical environmentalists retorted that E-books were just another form of computers making people more materialistic and encouraging corporate greed. Besides that, the radical environmentalists argued that books should be made out of recycled garbage. At the same time I have heard market fundamentalists argue that TeleRead is simply an expansion of the federal government. These extreme groups, whether of the left or of the right, are in their own universe of reality. No matter what the benefits of electronic books, extremists groups will never concede the value of electronic books. Since the extremest groups are not interested in the TeleRead concept, TeleRead should not work at trying to draw them in. Lesson Four: The only way for electronic books and TeleRead to succeed is for inexpensive, powerful tablets and laptops to be available and popularly used. Twenty years ago when I first became a futurist I promoted the concept of distance education, and I was laughed at. Many people argued to me that individuals would never sit in front of a computer and take a class from some school thousands of miles away. Today millions of people all across the globe communicate all day over the world through the Internet. We are seeing an explosion of courses being made available all over the Internet through existing educational institutions. The Highway of the Internet was needed for people to start taking the concept of distance education, distance health-care, and distance legal services seriously. We must encourage distribution of tablets and laptops. In the same way that Apple computers donated computers to grade schools before educational software was readily available; We need to encourage computer companies to donate laptops to grade schools, high schools, and colleges. Anyone who has seen how young people cannot go anywhere without their cell phones could easily see who how e-books could be just as portable and popular. Lesson Five: While many older people will find e-books beneficial, it will be the younger generation that will truly bond with electronic books. An example of this was with word processors. Even though word processors were clearly superior to typewriters, many people who had grown up with typewriters simply could never switch to word processors. That is perfectly okay. However, we at TeleRead or any other futuristic organization must recognize that a voluntary evolutionary approach is how we can convince people that our new paradigms will work. If we at TeleRead, or any other futuristic organization, take a radical coercive method we will fail to convince people of our new paradigm, and for that matter we should fail for trying this arrogant and nondemocratic approach. Lesson Six: The last thing that we can learn from Cyberbooks is that we need to win our war with a Trojan Horse. In the novel Cyberbooks we have a happier ending than The Man in The White Suit. After Carl Lewis is defeated, it is suggested to him that Lewis promote his electronic book as a toy rather than the substitute for a book. The novel finishes 50 years in the future and electronic books have completely replaced printed books. Carl Lewis marries the woman he loves and dies a billionaire. TeleRead is not about making money for its supporters, but perhaps the lessons from Cyberbooks can help us succeed in our own way.
The cost of pulped wood in K-12 "Ordering, processing and shelving books takes specific knowledge and a lot of time. Elementary library aides who work three to six hours a day cannot be expected to do all of this plus aid classes every hour. And secondary librarians also cannot fulfill the jobs of information literacy teacher, resource consultant and library manager without having full-time clerical help." - Sandy Schuckett, V.P., Legislation, California School Library Association in a letter in the July 9 LA Times. The TeleRead take: Needless to say, TeleRead would allow librarians to spend more time on mentoring and less time moving around paper and cardboard.
Books vs. videogames "Prolonged time playing video games could cause people to lose concentration, get angry easily and have trouble associating with others, a Japanese professor's research has suggested. In a survey conducted by Akio Mori, a professor in Nihon University's College of Humanities and Sciences, it was found that the longer people spent playing video games, the less activity they showed in the prefrontal region of their brains, which governs emotion and creativity." - Mainichi Shimbun, July 8, 2002 via Slashdot. The TeleRead take: One more reason to use technology to popularize books, which encourage concentration? Actually, as Shashdotters have noted, there jury is still out on this one. But it's not out on the desirability of books.
Monday, July 08, 2002
The summer literacy loss
"A summer reading loss of three months accumulates to a two-year gap by the time poor kids are in middle school, even if their schools are equally effective." - Richard Allington, a professor in the College of Education's School of Teaching and Learning at the University of Florida, as quoted by the Lakeland Online Ledger, July 4. The TeleRead take: Another indication of the need to make reading a family affair. Under TeleRead, parents would find it easier than ever to be good role models, increasing the chances of children reading at any time of the year.
Sunday, July 07, 2002
The TabletPC as an e-book reader
"...since the machine comes with wireless Ethernet connectivity built in, using it in tablet mode becomes a natural way of surfing the Web (provided you already have a list of favorites). It's also a great way of looking at electronic books or magazines." Michael Miller, PC Magazine's editor in chief, writing in the June 25 issue. The TeleRead take: No miracles expected, given the prices of the first TabletPCs. Just the same, imagine the potential when the hardware is less expensive. The TabletPC in many ways overlaps with the vision I had for TeleReaders back in the early '90s.
AOL Time Warner and the C Word Is copyright lurking in the background as a reason for the mess at AOL Time Warner? This morning's New York Time dissects AOL Time Warner, but leaves out the possibility that disagreements over copyright could be at least a contributory factor. Odd, isn't it? This was to be a merger based on "convergence." And yet so far we have not seen a big push to reach into the company's vault and get "Citizen Kane" and other classic movies on the Net now, along with more recent works. It isn't just technology. As a cable modem user I've seen full-length movies from other companies' sites that looked almost as good as those on television. Even if the the technology is costly and flawed, it's far enough along for AOL to be doing far more than it is right now. So why this underperformance? My theory is that some of the more clueful members of the AOL faction indeed wanted the movies on the Net in a big way without delay, but that the traditionalists from the Time Warner side may have interfered because of piracy fears. Beyond Bob Pittman's focus on the here and now of dialup, this might also help explain why the company's broadband efforts have let down both techies and financial analysts. Some months ago a journalist joked that Hollywood types feared broadband because it would let people pirate material at a faster rate, and he may have been more on target than he thought. The other copyright-related issue is that Hollywood traditionalists from the Time Warner side have felt that their precious creations mustn't be tampered with, and that absolute control must be maintained. Not the best 'tude for interactive entertainment and fan sites. As a theory, the idea of convergence made business sense on the whole. Problem was the execution. One wonders how AOL Time Warner would have fared if Chairman Steve Case hadn't been tragically distracted by the brain cancer his brother suffered. Sympathy over the illness and death, of course. But it meant that Case was not doing his job. Now that the CEO job has more of Steve Case's attention again, will he be able to reverse the debacle? Don't count on immediate miracles, given the huge piles of debt. But certain copyright-related changes just might help. One would be for AOL to make clear to fellow members of the RIAA that customer-friendly business models and the gentler forms of technologically based protections are better than Draconian copyright laws and tightly corsetted content. That would be one way to clear the way for an explosion of fresh new material on broadband--beyond the usual Hollywood fare--and increase the appeal of the high-speed Net access that AOL wants to sell its tens of millions of subscribers. Especially in an AOL context, a little thought emerges. Could it really be just a coincidence that the growth of broadband fell off when Hollyood and its friends in Washington and the courts kept strangling users with oppressive copyright laws? Needless to say, the effects really hit home with the anti-Napster jihad, which actually hurt the demand for AOL's broadband services by removing some of the very content that enticed customers to upgrade. Obviously business cycles and other factors played a role, but the C Word just might have figured in as well. On the positive, AOL is reported to be on the cusp of a breakthrough that could slash the cost of video and audio on the Net. Will AOL be able to overcome copyright-related fears sufficient to take advantage of this? Stay tuned. Perhaps Case's more active interest in the company these days will make a difference. As former AOL shareholder (well, "former" except for a few stray shares), however, I wouldn't rush back into the stock. Wi-Fi is a great preview of the disruptive technologies that reduce the value of AOL's expensive cable-related investments over the long run, and beyond that, paper publishing won't grow nearly as fast as the electronic variety--a trend that will accelerate when readable tablet-style computers and e-ink become common. * * * Needless to say, the above does not even address another issue--whether regulators should have allowed the AOL Time Warner merger to happen in the first place. What is striking is that even with the distribution advantages in place, despite some setbacks like the loss of 2.1 million cable subscribers, the company still have not been able to get things right. Perhaps regulators in the States and elsewhere unwittingly struck a blow for "small is beautiful" when they freed AOL and Time Warner to bungle in such a spectacular way.
Saturday, July 06, 2002
Another anti-e-book rant in the press
Linton Weeks of the Washington Post repeats the same tired arguments against e-books that we've been hearing for eons. His main point is that sales of e-books and hardware from big companies are low. Duh. Only deep in the story do we see his grudging admission: "For one thing, proponents say, young people may adapt to e-books quicker than old folks." All right, Linton. In that particular case, you are on target. Weeks, however, plays down e-ink and similar technologies around the bend that could dramatically boost the appeal of e-books. He simply alludes briefly and vaguely to the fact that "Microsoft and Adobe are focusing on improving the 'readability' of the screens." What's that supposed to mean? A reader on the way with a shade around the screen? An improved ClearType? Not too helpful. Surely he meant more than his accompanying reference to the TabletPC? The real news is what's ahead, not the already-known fact that the industry has disappointed piracy-fixated mainstream publishers with low sales of e-books in inconvenient formats. Meanwhile thanks to Random House's Stuart Applebaum for pointing out an important fact, which the Post buries--namely, that book buyers are largely older than 40 and not always open to new tech. This is one reason why libraries are doing better with e-books than commercial sellers of them--and why TeleRead could help publishers by using volume to drive down prices of hardware and content alike for the budget-minded of all ages. I'm not alone in these sentiments. The New York Times has just observed that "Libraries are one of the few places where there is real demand for electronic books, which so far have been a dud with consumers." Some cause and effect here? Time for the Post to stop looking backwards and be more open to the possibilities of different business models as well as better screens and the like. Followup, July 11: Just saw Tim O'Reilly's well-done reply to the Post article. I especially liked one of his observations: "The eBook that simply mimics the print book on screen is a transitional form, just like the early 'moving pictures' that simply pointed a camera at actors on a stage." Exactly, exactly! This is why TeleRead is so keen on a library system with stable links--through which writers could reliably refer to other works, thereby increasing adding much value beyond that of pulped wood (accompanying multimedia would be another possibility, of course). Not to knock paper books, of course. Each medium has its place.
Danish Court to Web: Drop Dead "Challenging the World Wide Web's fundamental premise of linking, a Danish court ordered an Internet news service to stop linking to Web sites of Danish newspapers. Copenhagen's lower bailiff's court ruled Friday that Newsbooster.com was in direct competition with the newspapers and that the links it provided to specific news articles damaged the value of the newspapers' advertisements." - AP, July 5. The TeleRead take: This ruling is all the more reason for National Public Radio to stop saying it can withdraw links. Bad example. In effect, like it or not, NPR is giving comfort to greedsters like the Danish publishers behind the suit. Ironic, isn't it? Publishers are turning out to be among the biggest threat to freedom of the online press. Perhaps Danish newspapers need to get sued for a deep link to a company they're writing about. But then, that wouldn't happen, would it? I suspect that publishers of this ilk don't do risky investigative journalism via the Web anyway. I, for one, would advocate a boycott of Danish products in areas other than high tech if the ruling isn't overturned. The supposedly liberal Danes, or at least the plaintiffs, are clueless compared to the online Pravda--by far more Jeffersonian, with a splendid collection of statements from understandably outraged Russian journalists. Quite in character, the Newsbooster portal, the defendant in the case, has deeplinked to relevant news stories. In a statement posted on the Web yesterday, Newsbooster said: "The Danish Court with Judge Michael Kistrup decided today to issue a preluminary injunction against our Search Engine Newsbooster.com for the use of direct 'Hyperlinking.' "Newsbooster covers over 4,500 mainstream and specialized news sources. The Danish publishers news sources represent 28 and only 0.6 % of the sources in the Newsbooster service. "Newsbooster.com will together with our search engine colleagues decide if we will continue the fight on a higher level." CEO Anders Lautrup-Larsen was quoted: "Today is a very sad day for Newsbooster and the entire Internet. The backbone of the Internet is challenged in a way we never seen before!" (I've tweaked the English in the material from Newsbooster.)
Friday, July 05, 2002
Computers for India's masses: The Simputer's set to debut
 "India is ready this month to roll out its $200 'Simputer,' a handheld computer aimed at wooing the poor across the digital divide. 'The waiting period is almost over. We are near the take-off stage,' Vinay Deshpande, chairman of Encore Software Ltd, one of two firms with licenses to make the device, told Reuters late on Thursday.'" - Reuters, July 5 (Simputer link added).The TeleRead take: Definitely strong TeleReaderish elements, complete with plans for state-government purchases of the machine, which in turn could help the private market, where the real action will eventually be. The Simputer costs $200 or a third as much as a PC, and it works off batteries, making it perfect for rural use. Plus, users can plug in their smart cards, do their work, then remove the cards, clearing the way for others to use the Simputers. This is a neat twist on the Internet cafe idea. Congratulations to the Simputer Trust, which brought together officials of Encore and the Indian Institute of Science. The trust will license the design to other companies. The machines uses Linux and can offer voicemail, text-to-speech and Internet access--even illiterates can benefit. Get set for e-books sooner or later. And even lower prices. For more details, check out a collection of Simputer press clips. Needless, it will be interesting to see how Simputer project and the Indian government address the content issue. Even without an immediate library approach--at least I don't know of one, though I've heard of at least one small e-publisher interested in developing the Indian market--the Simputer project is awesomely useful. Read the clips and you'll see that the machine was designed with great care to be responsive to Indian needs, just the way it should have been. Let's hope that the content can be designed that way too. As I've said before, the U.S. would do well to help developing countries set up their own national digital libraries--with appropriate business models; perhaps with help from an Electronic Peace Corps. Back to the issue of Indian needs; what to do about American corporate needs; how to reconcile the two? Dick Brass, a Microsoft VP, once alluded wisely to the possiblity of e-books reaching Indian villages. And now they soon will be able to--with or without Microsoft. It's no small coincidence that the Simputer system uses Linux, making it more affordable than otherwise. If Microsoft and big American publishers want into the rural Indian market, they will have to adjust big time--with appropriately priced offerings. Otherwise, I suspect, we'll just hear more stories about those wicked developing countries pirating U.S. products. More positively, if Bill Gates really wants to be an e-Carnegie at a global level, here is his chance. He should DEL his past statements saying that he'd do better to focus on population control and other issue of public health than on computers. Point is, much of public health is about spreading information to the people. And a network of Simptuer-priced machines could work wonders. What's more, they could contribute to properity and even corruption-fighting. And we know the old truth: Population control is much easier when the general level of prosperity improves--along with literacy. Both health and infotech are important and in fact should be inseparable. In fact, see the item below on free medical books. Just ask Indian medical schools if they have a book surplus.
Thursday, July 04, 2002
FreeBooks4Doctors!
"Free Medical Books - Over the next few years, many important medical textbooks will be available online, free and in full-text. The unrestricted access to scientific knowledge will have a major impact on medical practice. FreeBooks4Doctors! is dedicated to the promotion of free access to medical books over the Internet." - Found via Library News Daily
TeleRead among "useful sites" recommended by InfoAnarchy's Luke Francl An editor of the InfoAnarchy blog (and, no, don't let the name scare you--calm down and read the FAQ) has listed TeleRead among four useful sites covering such issues as copyright, trademark and cyberliberties. Hey, thanks, Luke Francl. My own kudos go to Jack Valenti, Fritz Hollings and the NPR link cops for ample inspiration. Other featured sites are Potlatch, the EFF's Consensus at Lawyerpoint and Copyfight. Speaking of InfoAnarchy, take a look at the mission statement, which says: "Of course, we must also make this new future attractive for everyone, with new means to compensate the producers of information. Perhaps this requirement for monetary compensation is only a transitional step before we step into a new information economy, but in any case, it is a required step." Yes, very much in TeleRead territory--given our interest in fair compensation. Far enough into the future, no telling what will happen. But for now? TeleRead's library model would be a sensible way for participating content providers to be paid without being so much at odds with the human inclination to share. Also check out Luke Francl's analysis of Ted Nelson's putdown of the Web.
"Hacker Drops Appeal of DVD Piracy Case" "The publisher of a hacker Web site will not appeal a ruling that prohibits the posting of links to software that unlocks digital copyright protections on DVDs, attorneys said on Wednesday. Both the New York District Court and the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals have ruled that Eric Corley and his 2600 Magazine Web site violated the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which was enacted to protect intellectual property rights from digital piracy." - Reuters, July 3 (I've added links). The TeleRead take: Count on corporate fatcats to try to use this ruling in the general war against links and the whole idea of the Web. Meanwhile keep in mind one of the reasons Corley and Electronic Frontier Foundation ended up losing--their lack of MPAA-level financial resources. A unfair legal system often can be self-perpetrating, er, self-perpetuating--well, up to a point. Sooner or later, aging pols and judges will retire or die off, and the newest crop of campaign contributors may not quite have the same priorities as the old. Meanwhile we can at least take heart that the EFF will fight the DMCA on other fronts. Further thoughts: There were important issues beyond linking, of course, and if nothing else, don't dismiss this case as one about piracy vs. morality; the DCMA was a major blow against legitimate fair use and other supposedly cherished parts of U.S. copyright law. However victorious, the Motion Picture Association of America is still clueless. One reads with amusement Jack Valenti's official MPAA biography, which says, "New magical technology, the rise of importance of international markets, the tyranny of piracy have radically changed the landscape of the American film and television industry. It is Valenti's duty and challenge to lead the confrontation with these global dangers, problems and opportunties." Then within a few sentences the bio talks about Valenti's War War II fight against the Nazis. And therein lies the problem. For Valenti, the new Nazis are consumers. Perhaps, as the TeleBlog has noted in the past, Valenti's MPAA should spend less on lawyers and more on focus groups to help come up with more-popular ideas for laws and pricing models that would make his cause more FDRish. Since Hollywood and friends own powerful legislators like Fritz Hollings, we could then see a little progress.
Memo to NPR: "Web ties cut by hyperlinking crackdown" - ZDnet "Some Web publications are clamping down on 'deep linking', where a hyperlink goes to a page other than their home page, but others warn that this destroys the very essence of the Web." - ZDnet, July 3. The TeleRead take: National Public Radio ill-served Peter Zenger's ghost by insisting that it can take away linking "rights." Sensibly NPR did away with an ask-first linking policy. But the network is still hurting the Net by not coming out in solidly in favor of the concept of unfettered linking. NPR's support of the First Amendment would be most timely now--even if today weren't the Fourth of July. As the ZDnet story shows, a real threat to freedom has arisen from anti-deep-link suits such as the one in Denmark. "Paul Alan Levy, an attorney with consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, said he's seeing an escalation in the number of letters demanding a site to stop deep linking," ZDnet reports. "Levy helped convince Belo, owner of The Dallas Morning News, to back away from its threats against alternative news site Barkingdogs.org, which directed people to the publication's internal pages. But he fears others might be afraid to stand up to legal browbeating." I'm not surprised that some greedy, backwards publishers hate the Web and consider profits more important than the First Amendment or equivalents outside the States. But in the end, even trogs may live to regret their attacks on freedom of expression--for example, if they themselves deeplink and then get sued. Let's hope that the Denmark case is friendly to the cause of a free and open Net, and that well-regarded news organizations such as NPR can do their part by not imposing limits on linking. That includes linking to "commercial" sites. Just what is commercial? Couldn't that include other news organizations? Not to mention other organizations whose deeplinking is actually to the benefit of the public. As I've noted in the past, I'm collaborating on a book with a man who runs a consulting firm helping people falsely accused of child abuse. Shouldn't abuse-excuse.com be able to link if NPR does a story in his specialty? Wouldn't the public be better off getting the facts directly from NPR, via the link, rather than having to trust a paraphrase on a commercial or even a professional Web site? Imagine the greater ease of comparing different products and services? Simply put, link-hositle laws would be anti-consumer. This isn't to say that commercial sites or any others should be fee to commit trademark violations or engage in unfair competition. But there are other laws that can be used, outside the linking area per se, without compromising freedom of expression.
Attention, Jack Valenti "...it is far from clear that content providers really need the combination of five different means of protection (technology, contracts, technology licenses, anti-circumvention regulation and copyright law) instead of one (copyright law)." So writes Dr. Stephan Bechtold, a Fullbright fellow at Stanford, in From Copyright to Information Law - Implications Of Digital Rights Management (PDF format). He of courses is concerned about the fair-use implications. Found via Bag and Baggage, which discussed the Bechtold paper.
Suits ahead for e-book sharers? The Wall Street Journal says the music industry and its lawyers are gearing up to torment large-scale sharers of music files. The TeleRead take: Could this be a preview of what's ahead for e-books if a user-friendly business model isn't in place?
Wednesday, July 03, 2002
"Superarchives" to spread around research: Not just for academics
"'Superarchives' Could Hold All Scholarly Output. Online collections by institutions may challenge the role of journal publishers." - Headline in the July 5 issue of the Chroncle of Higher Education. The TeleRead take: These are much-needed projects, given the outrageous fees that journal publishers charge without adding sufficient value. But they're far more than that, and the implications are exciting if intellectual property issues can be addressed. Universities with existing or planned superarchives include MIT (with a superarchive under development), the California Institute of Technology (which already has an archive with several departments participating), the University of California (with a recently created Scholarship Repository) and Ohio State University (via the planned OSU Knowledge Bank). In the Chronicle article, Jeffrey Young writes: "Professors' office computers hold a wealth of original content: research articles, data sets, field notes, images, and the like. Some of the material will be published in journals months or years after it is created, but even then it will probably be available only to the journals' subscribers. The rest will never see the light of day. "Several colleges are now looking to share more of that work by building 'institutional repositories' online and inviting their professors to upload copies of their research papers, data sets, and other work. The idea is to gather as much of the intellectual output of an institution as possible in an easy-to-search online collection. One college has called its proposed repository a 'super digital archive.'" But what about information overload? The Chronicle says: "To make sure the new repositories don't lead to information overload, librarians are making sure that the materials are tagged with 'metadata' codes to help search engines navigate the sea of data. Such tags include keywords, publishing information about the article (if applicable), or an indication of what language the article is written in, for example. Some departments may have graduate students or staff members handle the virtual paperwork for professors. The DSpace software will add the tags using information supplied by users." Discussing the merits of the superarchive approach, the Chronicle says: "Proponents say such superarchives could increase communication among scholars and spark greater levels of innovation, especially in the sciences. Some imagine a day when every research university gives its research away through the Web, allowing scholars and nonacademics to mine it for ideas and information." Notice? From the start, some envision the superarchives as serving academics and nonacademics alike--which could have some wonderful possibilities for smart, alert people inside and outside tech. Of course, the projects are no substitue for a fully integrated national digital library system. But the superarchives could be valuable in their own way, and we wish the projects much success. In fact, with appropriate tags and software and other wrinkles, TeleRead might be a great way to blend the very best superarchives. Chronicle article found at Tomalek's Realm.
Tuesday, July 02, 2002
NPR lawyer was skeptical of ask-first link policy
"...it was a stupid policy. Someone--I do not know who it was, it wasn't me--put up the policy. Most educational institutions aren't served by this policy." - Denise Leary, deputy counsel of NPR, at the ILAW conference, as quoted by Copyfight. The TeleRead take: Better late than never, no? Presumably Ms. Leary, a veteran NPR lawyer, had seen the network's own terms-of-use page. Why didn't she speak out in the past against the "stupid" policy and discover its author? Still, Ms. Leary's statement is yet another good sign from NPR, which has already axed its ask-first link policy. Now if only she or colleagues can finish the job and do away with the idea of NPR saying it can rescind linking "rights." What's more, given the complexity of many investigative stories, it would help for NPR to reverse course and defend the right of linkers to use framing--at times a handy tool in Web-based journalism that seeks maximum clarity of presentation. Granted, all the legal matters are the stuff of legal controversy. But as I see it, there are more journalism-friendly ways of coping with pseudo-NPRs or other misrepresentations than going after linking per se. If even NPR won't defend unfettered linking in a copyright context, then imagine the joys that its reporters and producers will experience at the hands of a corporation they're exposing via skepticallly presented links to its Web pages. So NPR should give the First Amendment the benefit of the doubt, not just from a traditional journalistic perspective but also because the network wants an engaged public. Ms. Leary once served as a legislative counsel to the American Civil Liberties Union, and hopefully she and colleagues will recognize the need for robust debate on the Web--among sites of different viewpoints--without lawyers getting in the way. Incidentally, for more on ILAW, see Dan Gillmore's notes.
Monday, July 01, 2002
"Electronic books: Reports of their death have been exaggerated"
A well-organized overview appears in the July August issue of Online: The Leading Magazine for Information Professionals. Among other facts, author Donald Hawkins notes that "Attendance at the fall 2001 National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) e-book conference was down by 50 percent." But Hawkins goes on to conclude that e-books are not dead. "Indeed, some e-book market segments appear to be stirring to life. A few e-book companies are growing and achieving profitability." Hawkins, editor-in-chief for Information Today, Inc.'s Information Science Abstracts and Fulltext Sources Online, discusses library apps as well as commercial ones. While e-books have been more successful in libraries than in bookstores, he is correct in saying that acceptance has been low. His reasons? "Titles must be purchased for a specific device. "Generally, the library staff selects the titles to be loaded on the device, and there is no capability for users to make their own decisions on what titles they would like to read. "Incompatibilities among readers and publishers' copyright restrictions mean that books loaded on one reader cannot be transferred to another one. "Only a limited selection of books is available. "Downloads can be difficult and slow. "Users are reluctant to assume responsibility for the reader. (One library user said, 'Please don't give my child a $599 reader!') "Both the book and reader must be cataloged. James Rettig, university librarian at the University of Richmond, showed some data at the 2002 Computers in Libraries conference on the increase in usage after e-books were added to an OPAC. His data strongly showed that cataloging is vital for the acceptance of e-books in a library." A well-integrated national digital library system of the TeleRead variety, of course, could address all of those issues. Meanwhlie it should be noted that Hawkins is far from the only person discussing the reasons why e-books aren't the rage now. Also see a less upbeat article, Electronic books lose plot, by Charles Wright, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald. Of course in important respects the two aren't that far apart. Hawkins would agree wholeheartedly with Wright's belief that some makers of e-book hardware have bungled in horrible ways, such what Gemstar did to discourage readers from formatting their own material for Rocket-style e-books. The result? Lower hardware sales. And less incentive for commercial publishers to release titles in Gemstar form. (Thanks to Library Stuff for discovering Hawkins' article.)
Free books, random kindness--and Amazon's peak market cap "People across the Bay Area are committing random acts of literary kindness, leaving books in public places for strangers to find and then tracking the books' fates online." - SFgate.com article about the inspired experiment of bookcrossing.com. The TeleRead take: I love the idea, went to bookcrossing.com and found that "random acts of literary kindness" were taking place within a mile and a half of me--happening right there in the headquarters of the library system in Alexandria, VA. Here's a thought, however. What if people not only would "free" books but would also spend more time on causes such as Project Gutenberg and a well-stocked national digital library system--and otherwise try to turn their priorities around in the post-September 11 era? At the peak of the Naz, the market cap of Amazon.com was in the tens of billions--compared to the present $5.339 billion. What if this money instead had been going toward well-stocked librararies--both online and off? Wouldn't the investment, in children and society in general, have been longer lasting? The money could have been invested not only through government but also through private philanthropy. We could have had a well-endowed NPR of books and have helped the existing radio NPR, too. Nothing against Amazon itself on this front, by the way. Jeff Bezos did receive criticism about how Amazon depicted its balance sheet, but at least he kept warning investors about his stock's inflated price. WorldCom not. It's just that we need to think of ourselves a little more as citizens and just a little less as investors. Disclosure: I myself was skeptical about Amazon but did fall for other stories such as that of AOL Time Warner, now slimmed down to a cap of just $61 billion, a fraction of its former self. I've kept a few hundred dollars of AOL shares, an investment earlier disclosed in the TeleRead FAQ, but I really wonder how the company will cope with such phenomena as improved Wi-Fi or other alternatives to conventional cable, not to mention the eventual possibility of more sensible copyright laws.
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