Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter
George Davis <[email protected]>
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(Note: this version of this week's newsletter is being sent on behalf of William Fishburne <[email protected]>) PGWeekly_February_26.txt **The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, February 26, 2003** ******eBooks Readable By Both Humans and Computers For Over 31 years****** We Have Now Done 7234 eBooks!!! Up from 4669 this time last year!!! A Review of "Wives and Daughters" Review by Joseph E. Loewenstein, M.D. What a gem! That's what I said to myself when I finished reading Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell's last novel, Wives and Daughters. I consider it a must for anyone who enjoys Victorian literature or literature of any period in which characters are exquisitely drawn in minute detail and become real people. Wives and Daughters has characterization in spades! At least a dozen characters stand out. Foremost, of course, is the heroine, Molly Gibson--intelligent, honest, proper, usually shy but bold when determined--all that a Victorian heroine should be. The book opens with Molly not quite grown, warmly attached to her widowed father, a diligent and warm-hearted country doctor. During a prolonged visit to the nearby home of Squire Hamley, Molly becomes attached to and beloved by the Hamley family, including the sons Osborne and Roger. Stubborn, outspoken Squire Hamley has breeding (his family has owned the estate since before the Norman conquest) but no education and little money; he expects his sons, especially Osborne, the elder, to marry for wealth and social position (a theme often explored by Trollope). During Molly's stay at Hamley Hall, her father decides she needs a stepmother, and he marries a widow with a daughter Molly's age. The second Mrs. Gibson, one of the memorable characters in literature, a born schemer and social climber unencumbered by veracity, takes charge of Molly and, in trying to make her into a "lady," makes her life miserable. Mrs. Gibson's daughter Cynthia is all that Molly is not--beautiful, fashionable, flirtatious, and irresistibly attractive to young men. But both Cynthia and Mr. Osborne Hamley have secrets which are about to blow up. Molly unintentionally learns the secrets and does her best to put things right. The action takes place in and about a placid country village whose inhabitants are wonderfully described, based on the author's personal experience. Mrs. Gaskell (as she was called by Victorian readers) died before completing the last one or two chapters. A modern reader would never know it, but Victorians would have missed the final acknowledgment of love and uniting in marriage required by their customs. Those who saw the magnificent Exxon-Mobil Masterpiece Theatre dramatization on PBS saw one possible ending, but not the one planned by Mrs. Gaskell. Elizabeth Gaskell was unusual in many ways by Victorian standards. She and her husband, a Unitarian minister, did not subscribe to the Victorian conviction that women should be subordinated to men. Her novels and short stories, while portraying Victorian life in accurate detail, explored the relationships of men and women, the worth of individuals accorded by character and achievement as opposed to social rank, and the plight of workers in the new industrial society. One of her novels, Ruth, shocked her contemporaries by dealing with illegitimate pregnancy and its consequences in a society with a dual set of behavioral standards. She left fewer than a dozen novels, by the mid-twentieth century largely forgotten by all but scholars. She has, in modern parlance, been "re-discovered," deservedly, and the quality of her writing has earned her a place among the acknowledged greats of Victorian literature. To me, Wives and Daughters is far more skillfully written and has a better plot than Thackeray's best-known novel, Vanity Fair, and rivals the best of Trollope's bountiful output. Trust me, and try it! *Main URL is promo.net Webmaster is Pietro di Miceli of Rome, Italy* Check out our Websites at promo.net/pg & gutenberg.net, and see below to learn how you can get INSTANT access to our eBooks via FTP servers even before the new eBooks listed below appear in our catalogue. The eBooks are posted throughout the week. You can even get daily lists. May 2002 Honey's Medium Business Dictionary, English-German[8meedxxx.xxx]3209C May 2002 Honey's Medium Business Dictionary, German-English[8medexxx.xxx]3208C May 2002 Leviathan, by Thomas Hobbes [lvthnxxx.xxx]3207 May 2002 Moby Multiple Language Lists of Common Words [mlangxxx.xxx]3206 May 2002 Moby Pronunciation List [mpronxxx.zip]3205 May 2002 Moby Hyphenation List [mhyphxxx.zip]3204 May 2002 Moby Part of Speech List [mpospxxx.zip]3203 May 2002 Moby Thesaurus List [mthesxxx.zip]3202 May 2002 Moby Word Lists [mwordxxx.zip]3201 Apr 2002 Entire Gutenberg Twain Files, by Mark Twain[MT#52][mtentxxx.xxx]3200 Apr 2002 Complete Letters of Mark Twain, ed. Paine [MT#51][mtcltxxx.xxx]3199 Apr 2002 Twain's Letters V6 1907-1910 by A. B. Paine[MT#50][mt6ltxxx.xxx]3198 Apr 2002 Twain's Letters V5 1901-1906 by A. B. Paine[MT#49][mt5ltxxx.xxx]3197 Apr 2002 Twain's Letters V4 1886-1900 by A. B. Paine[MT#48][mt4ltxxx.xxx]3196 Apr 2002 Twain's Letters V3 1876-1885 by A. B. Paine[MT#47][mt3ltxxx.xxx]3195 Apr 2002 Twain's Letters V2 1867-1875 by A. B. Paine[MT#46][mt2ltxxx.xxx]3194 Apr 2002 Twain's Letters V1 1835-1866 by A. B. Paine[MT#45][mt1ltxxx.xxx]3193 Apr 2002 Curious Republic of Gondour, by Mark Twain [MT#44][mtcrgxxx.xxx]3192 Apr 2002 Goldsmiths Friend Abroad Again, by Twain [MT#43][mtgfaxxx.xxx]3191 Apr 2002 1601, by Mark Twain [MT#42][mtsxnxxx.xxx]3190 Today Is Day #56 of 2003 314 Days/45 Weeks Left Until First Report of 2004 [Our production year begins/ends 1st Wednesday of the month/year] Week #44 Of Our SECOND 5,000 eBooks Next December, Perhaps Our 10,000th eBook! 2565 New eBooks In The Last 12 Months 4669 eBooks This Week Last Year 7234 Tree-Friendly Titles Now Online 245 Monthly Average This Year 204 New This Month [1st month of 2003] 491 New This Year 4669 New At This Time Last Year In this issue of the Project Gutenberg Weekly newsletter: - Intro (above) - Making Donations - Access to the Collection - Information About Mirror Sites - Submit a New eBook for Copyright Clearance - Weekly ebook update - Headline News from Newsscan and Edupage - Information about mailing lists *** Requests for Assistance: Project Gutenberg has received a generous donation of over 20 Pentium Pro 100 computers. If you have a need for a computer to do Project Gutenberg work or can make good use of computers (setting up a "Project Gutenberg" section at a local library or school) please let William Fishburne ([email protected]) know! The computers are physically in Northern Virginia and if you are not, it would be necessary for you to arrange for the shipping cost. Please send in your thoughts and ideas on how PG can make best use of this dated windfall! There are no boxes for most of these, so it would be MUCH easier to organize a sort of "bucket-brigade" of people who COULD get to the DC area [20 miles down towards Manassas] and get some of these a day or two closer to others who may be able to make a trip part way to get them, etc., etc., etc. These are GREAT for any wordprocessing, etc. . .it's just about exactly what I am using here, for all my Project Gutenberg work. However, these are NOT good for the "bloatware" operating systems and programs if you are going to reload and reboot a lot. . .takes some real time for this. However, I scanned the first books I ever OCRed on something much slower. . . . *** Project Gutenberg has a new way to prepare digital editions of books which can not be read on a conventional flat bed scanner. Brewster Kahle has generously donated time on The Internet Archive's (http://www.archive.org) Minolta 7100 orbital scanner http://bpg.minoltausa.com 02 While its physical location in San Francisco at the Presidio effectively limits access to people local to the area, we can offer a limited scanning service. Ideal candidate projects would be large format (up to 17" by 23"), fragile or rare books which cannot be unbound. Specifically, when scanned, the book is opened to lay flat on its spine, and is well supported on 2 variable height platens, producing a level surface upon which the overhead scanhead focuses. Pages can be scanned singly or in tandem, with resolution ranging from 300-600 dpi, depending upon the size of the scan area. (400 is the max resolution at max size). The correction software for eliminating center lines and curved pages is outstanding. While not as fast as a sheet feeder, it is physically less demanding to use than a flat bed scanner, and of course is much kinder to delicate pages and bindings. Contact me if this sounds like something you can use! *** QUICK WAYS TO MAKE A DONATION TO PROJECT GUTENBERG A. Send a check or money order to: Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation PMB 113 1739 University Ave. Oxford, MS 38655-4109 B. Donate by credit card online NetworkForGood: http://www.guidestar.org/partners/networkforgood/donate.jsp?ein=64-6221541 PayPal to "donate.net": https://www.paypal.com /xclick/business=donate%40gutenberg.net&item_name=Donate+to+Gutenberg Project Gutenberg's success is due to the hard work of thousands of volunteers over more than 30 years. 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VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, xxxxx10a.txt, as well as a new eBook number. --Please note the following changes, corrections and improvements: ***] 1 NEW ETEXTS FROM PROJECT GUTENBERG OF AUSTRALIA [*** Feb 2003 The Gracie Allen Murder Case, by Van Dine [SV#04][030025xx.xxx]0174A [http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300251.txt or .ZIP [Author's full name: S S Van Dine] For more information about Project Gutenberg of Australia, including accessing those etexts from outside of Australia, please visit: http://promo.net/pg/pgau.html --Project Gutenberg of Australia-- --A treasure trove of Literature-- *treasure-trove n. treasure found hidden with no evidence of ownership For more information about about copyright restrictions in other countries, please visit: http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/okbooks.html ***] 68 NEW U.S. POSTS [*** Mar 2005 Devereux, by E. B. Lytton, Complete [BL#58][b058wxxx.xxx]7630 [Author: Edward Bulwer-Lytton][Contains: EBooks #7624-7629] Mar 2005 Devereux, by E. B. Lytton, Book 6 [BL#57][b057wxxx.xxx]7629 Mar 2005 Devereux, by E. B. Lytton, Book 5 [BL#56][b056wxxx.xxx]7628 Mar 2005 Devereux, by E. B. Lytton, Book 4 [BL#55][b055wxxx.xxx]7627 Mar 2005 Devereux, by E. B. Lytton, Book 3 [BL#54][b054wxxx.xxx]7626 Mar 2005 Devereux, by E. B. Lytton, Book 2 [BL#53][b053wxxx.xxx]7625 Mar 2005 Devereux, by E. B. Lytton, Book 1 [BL#52][b052wxxx.xxx]7624 Dec 2004 The Angel Adjutant, by Minnie L. Carpenter [adjutxxx.xxx]7039 [Full title: The Angel Adjutant of "Twice Born Men"] [7-bit version with non-accented characters in adjut10.txt and adjut10.zip] [HTML version with accented characters in adjut10h.htm and adjut10h.zip] Dec 2004 Personal Experiences of S. O. Susag, by Susag [pesosxxx.xxx]7038 Dec 2004 Beric the Briton, by G. A. Henty [#11][bbritxxx.xxx]7037 [7-bit version in bbrit10.txt and bbrit10.zip] [HTML version in bbrit10h.htm and bbrit10h.zip] Dec 2004 Poorhouse Waif, by I. C. Byrum [pwaifxxx.xxx]7036 [Full title: The Poorhouse Waif and His Divine Teacher] [Full author: Isabel C. Byrum] Dec 2004 The Hero of Hill House, by Mable Hale [hhhsexxx.xxx]7035 Dec 2004 Fleurs de lys and Other Poems, by Arthur Weir [?flurxxx.xxx]7034 [7-bit version with non-accented characters in 7flur10.txt and 7flur10.zip] [8-bit version with accented characters in 8flur10.txt and 8flur10.zip] Dec 2004 Picturesque Quebec, by James MacPherson Le Moine [?quebxxx.xxx]7033 [7-bit version with non-accented characters in 7queb10.txt and 7queb10.zip] [8-bit version with accented characters in 8queb10.txt and 8queb10.zip] [The unzipped text files are each 1.4mb] Dec 2004 Prose Idylls, by Charles Kingsley [pridxxx.xxx]7032 [XHTML in prid10h.htm/.zip, text in prid10.txt/.zip] Dec 2004 The Sheik, by E. M. Hull [sheikxxx.xxx]7031 Dec 2004 Field and Hedgerow, by Richard Jefferies [#4][fhedgxxx.xxx]7030 [7-bit version with non-accented characters in fhedg10.txt and fhedg10.zip] [HTM version with accented characters in fhedg10h.htm and fhedg10h.zip] Dec 2004 Book of Etiquette, by Lillian Eichler [betiqxxx.xxx]7029 Dec 2004 The Clicking of Cuthbert, by P. G. Wodehouse [#21][clickxxx.xxx]7028 Dec 2004 Children's Touching Incidents, by S. B. Shaw [ansprxxx.xxx]7026 [Full title: Children's Edition of Touching Incidents and Remarkable Answers to Dec 2004 A Hive of Busy Bees, by Effie M. Williams [bbeesxxx.xxx]7027 Dec 2004 Rob Roy, by Sir Walter Scott, Complete [rob3wxxx.xxx]7025 Dec 2004 Rob Roy, by Sir Walter Scott, Volume 2 [rob2wxxx.xxx]7024 Dec 2004 Rob Roy, by Sir Walter Scott, Volume 1 [rob1wxxx.xxx]7023 [7-bit version in: rob_w10.txt and rob_w10.zip] [Illustrated HTML version with images (zipped only) in: rob_w10h.zip] Dec 2004 Ein Sommernachtstraum,byWilliam Shakespeare[TS#17][?gs17xxx.xxx]7022 [Translator: Wilhelm von Schlegel] [7-bit version with non-accented characters in 7gs1710.txt and 7gs1710.zip] [8-bit version with accented characters in 8gs1710.txt and 8gs1710.zip] [Language: German] Dec 2004 Indian Frontier Policy, by General Sir John Ayde [indfrxxx.xxx]7021 [Note: Indian Indian, not the American Indian] Dec 2004 Louis Agassiz as a Teacher, by Lane Cooper [agaszxxx.xxx]7020 Dec 2004 For Auld Lang Syne, by Ray Woodward [auldlxxx.xxx]7019 Dec 2004 Collection of Scotch Proverbs, by Pappity Stampoy [scprvxxx.xxx]7018 Dec 2004 A Study in Tinguian Folk-Lore, by Fay-Cooper Cole [?tnflxxx.xxx]7017 [Also posted TEI XML file 8tnfl10x.zip - zip only] Dec 2004 Adventures in the Land of Canaan, Robert Lee Berry[dvlcnxxx.xxx]7016 [Also posted XML-ish file dvlcn10x.zip] Dec 2004 Wisdom of the East, by Shinran Shonin [wsbdpxxx.xxx]7015 [Also posted Unicode - wsbdp10u.txt and 701510u.zip] Dec 2004 Equinoctial Regions of America V2,von Humboldt[#2][qnct2xxx.xxx]7014 [Full author: Alexander von Humboldt] Dec 2004 Journeys Through Bookland V4, Charles H. Sylvester[?bld4xxx.xxx]7013 Dec 2004 Mes Origines. Memoires et Recits, Frederic Mistral[?momrxxx.xxx]7012 [Language: French] [7-bit version in 7momr10.txt and 7momr10.zip] [8-bit version in 8momr10.txt and 8momr10.zip] [HTML version in 8momr10h.htm and 8momr10h.zip] Dec 2004 The Flood, by Emile Zola [#14][zofldxxx.xxx]7011 Dec 2004 Graded Lessons in English, by Reed and Kellog [ggramxxx.xxx]7010 [Full author: Alonzo Reed and Brainerd Kellogg] [Subtitle: An Elementary English Grammar Consisting of One Hundred Practical Dec 2004 Monsieur de Pourceaugnac, by Poquelin (Moliere [?prncxxx.xxx]7009 [7-bit version with non-accented characters in 7prnc10.txt and 7prnc10.zip] [8-bit version with accented characters in 8prnc10.txt and 8prnc10.zip] Dec 2004 The City of Fire, by Grace Livingston Hill [?cfirxxx.xxx]7008 [7-bit version with non-accented characters in 7cfir10.txt and 7cfir10.zip] [8-bit version with accented characters in 8cfir10.txt and 8cfir10.zip] Dec 2004 True Story of My Life, by Hans Christian Andersen [7hcanxxx.xxx]7007 [7-bit version with non-accented characters in 7hcan10.txt and 7hcan10.zip] [8-bit version with accented characters in 8hcan10.txt and 8hcan10.zip] Dec 2004 Bonnie Prince Charlie, by G. A. Henty [#11][bprchxxx.xxx]7006 [7-bit version in: bprch10.txt and bprch10.zip] [HTM version with in: bprch10h.htm and bprch10h.zip] Dec 2005 The Antiquary, by Sir Walter Scott, Complete [ant3wxxx.xxx]7005 Dec 2005 The Antiquary, by Sir Walter Scott, Volume 2 [ant2wxxx.xxx]7004 Dec 2005 The Antiquary, by Sir Walter Scott, Volume 1 [ant1wxxx.xxx]7003 [7-bit version in: ant_w10.txt and ant_w10.zip] [Illustrated HTML version with images only in: ant_w10h.zip] Dec 2004 Life of George Washington, V1, by W. Irving [#7][?wsh1xxx.xxx]7002 [Full title: The Life of George Washington, Volume I] [Full author: Washington Irving] [7-bit version in 7wsh110.txt and 7wsh110.zip] [8-bit version in 8wsh110.txt and 8wsh110.zip] Dec 2004 History of the Philippines, by Antonio de Morga [?phipxxx.xxx]7001 [Full title: History of the Philippine Islands Vols 1 and 2] [7-bit version in 7phip10.txt and 7phip10.zip] [8-bit version in 8phip10.txt and 8phip10.zip] Nov 2004 How to Live a Holy Life, by C. E. Orr [holywxxx.xxx]6999 Nov 2004 The Spanish Chest, by Edna A. Brown [?spchxxx.xxx]6998 [7-bit version with non-accented characters in 7spch10.txt and 7spch10.zip] [8-bit version with accented characters in 8spch10.txt and 8spch10.zip] Nov 2004 Winning of Barbara Worth, by Harold B Wrigh[HBW#5][wbworxxx.xxx]6997 Nov 2004 Romeo und Julia, by William Shakespeare [TS#16][?gs16xxx.xxx]6996 [Translator: August Wilhelm von Schlegel] [7-bit version with non-accented characters in 7gs1610.txt and 7gs1610.zip] [8-bit version with accented characters in 8gs1610.txt and 8gs1610.zip] [Language: German] Nov 2004 Ghosts I have Met and Some Others, by J. Bangs[#8][?gostxxx.xxx]6995 [Author's Full Name: John Kendrick Bangs] [7-bit version with non-accented characters in 7gost10.txt and 7gost10.zip] [8-bit version with accented characters in 8gost10.txt and 8gost10.zip] Nov 2004 The Lord of the Sea, by M. P. Shiel [?lrdsxxx.xxx]6993 [7-bit version with non-accented characters in 7lrds10.txt and 7lrds10.zip] [8-bit version with accented characters in 8lrds10.txt and 8lrds10.zip] Nov 2004 Belinda, by A. A. Milne [#4][beldaxxx.xxx]6992 [Text version with two accented characters in belda10.txt and belda10.zip] [HTM version with accented characters in belda10h.htm and belda10h.zip] Nov 2004 Across the Years, by Eleanor H. Porter [#9][acrosxxx.xxx]6991 [Text version with one accented character in acros10.txt and acros10.zip] [HTM version with accented characters in acros10h.htm and acros10h.zip] Nov 2004 Coriolanus, by William Shakespeare [ST#36][?gs36xxx.xxx]6990 [Translator: Dorothea Tieck] [7-bit version with non-accented characters in 7gs3610.txt and 7gs3610.zip] [8-bit version with accented characters in 8gs3610.txt and 8gs3610.zip] [unter der Redaktion von Ludwig Tieck] [Language: German] Nov 2004 History of Rome from 476 AD, by Robert F. Pennell [8romexxx.xxx]6989 [Full title: History of Rome from the Earliest times down to 476 AD] Nov 2004 Ottawa and Chippewa, by Andrew J. Blackbird [miindxxx.xxx]6988 [Full title: History of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan] Nov 2004 Five Little Peppers Abroad, by Margaret Sidney[#4][pep5axxx.xxx]6987 Nov 2004 Hygienic Physiology, by Joel Dorman Steele [?hygnxxx.xxx]6986 [Subtitle: With Special Reference to the Use of Alcoholic Drinks and [7-bit version with non-accented characters in 7hygn10.txt and 7hygn10.zip] [8-bit version with accented characters in 8hygn10.txt and 8hygn10.zip] Nov 2004 A Prefect's Uncle, by P. G. Wodehouse [#20][pfectxxx.xxx]6985 Nov 2004 The Pothunters, by P. G. Wodehouse [#19][pothtxxx.xxx]6984 Nov 2004 Missionary Work Ojebway Indians, E. F. Wilson [ojebwxxx.xxx]6983 [Full title: Missionary Work Among The Ojebway Indians] [Author: Edward Francis Wilson] Nov 2004 Hawthorne and His Circle, by Julian Hawthorne [hcircxxx.xxx]6982 Nov 2004 The Open Air, by Richard Jefferies [thpnrxxx.xxx]6981 [HTML version in thpnr10h.htm and thpnr10h.zip] Nov 2004 Tales of St. Austin's, by P. G. Wodehouse [#18][talewxxx.xxx]6980 Nov 2004 The Little Regiment, by Stephen Crane [#4][regmtxxx.xxx]6979 Mar 2005 The Orations of Lysias, by Lysias [lysswxxx.xxx]6969 Oct 2004 Han d'Islande, by Victor Hugo [handixxx.xxx]6694 [Language: French] *** Statistical Review (This number includes the etexts posted at the PG Australia web site) In the first 8 weeks of the new year, we have produced 491 new eBooks. The production statistics are calculated based on full weeks of production, each production-week starting/ending Wednesday noon, starting with the first Wednesday in January. January 1st was was the first Wednesday of 2003, and thus ended the production. With 7234 eTexts online as of February 26, 2003 it now takes an average of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $1.38 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 1.6 percent of the world's population! This "cost" is down from $2.14 when we had 4669 eBooks A Year Ago Can you imagine 7234 books each costing $0.76 less a year later??? Or. . .would this say it better? Can you imagine 7234 books each costing 35% less a year later??? At 7234 eBooks in 31 Years We Averaged 19.45 eBooks per month At 491 eBooks Done in 2003 We Averaged 204.00 eBooks per month *** ***Headline News*** [My Comments In Brackets] Headlines From Newsscan: MICROSOFT STEAMED OVER HOTMAIL SPAM Microsoft has filed a lawsuit against unnamed bulk mailers who harvested the e-mail addresses of Hotmail users in order to bombard them with junk messages. The spammers allegedly used tools to randomly generate e-mail addresses and then tested them to see which accounts were active. Microsoft argues that this form of dictionary attack violates federal laws, including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. (The Register 19 Feb 2003) http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/29382.html VANDALS BREAK INTO SYSTEM HOLDING MILLIONS OF CREDIT CARD NUMBERS A third-party processor of Visa and MasterCard credit card accounts was invaded by network vandals, but Visa and MasterCard executives say that none of the credit information was used for fraudulent purposes. In any event, no customer will be liable for any charges that might fraudulently be made to their accounts. A statement from Visa says that its fraud team "immediately notified all affected card-issuing financial institutions and is working with the third-party payment card processor to protect against the threat of a future intrusion. This is not something regional, it was throughout the nation and could be any bank." (Reuters/CNet News 18 Feb 2003) http://news.com.com/2102-1017-984842.html COPY PROTECTION EFFORTS MISGUIDED, SAYS LESSIG Lawmakers will be making a big mistake if they bow to Hollywood pressure and enact new copyright-protection legislation based on today's Internet use patterns, says Stanford University professor Lawrence Lessig. Currently, millions of consumers are downloading music to their PCs because slow dialup connections make it impractical to stream content quickly to a variety of devices. "In the future, it will be easier to pay for subscription services than to be an amateur database administrator who moves content from device to device. We're legislating against a background of the Internet's current architecture of content distribution, and this is a fundamental mistake," Lessig told participants at the Digital Rights Management Summit held at Intel headquarters. (AP 20 Feb 2003) http://apnews.excite.com/article/20030220/D7PA785G0.html OREGON SENATOR MOVES AGAINST INTERNET TAXES Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is pushing legislation that would make permanent an existing moratorium on Internet taxes. The current moratorium is set to expire this fall, but Wyden says the pressures on state governments to raise new funds could spark a stampede toward e-commerce sales taxes. "There are thousands of taxing jurisdictions and if all of them, or a significant portion of them, can take a bite out of electronic commerce, I think the consequences would be staggering." (Wall Street Journal 20 Feb 2003) http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1045262386225624343.djm,00.html (sub req'd) OPPOSITION TO SOFTWARE FILTERING LAW The Washington-based civil liberties group Center for Democracy and Technology is considering a legal challenge to a Pennsylvania law that threatens fines on any company providing Internet access to Web sites with child pornography rather than fines on the pornographic sites themselves. CDT associate director Alan Davidson says, "It's sort of this weird world where we're not prosecuting the people producing child pornography," and instead harassing Internet service providers whose existence is necessary for the stability of the Internet. (AP/San Jose Mercury News 20 Feb 2003) http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/5222575.htm ANOTHER ANTI-SPAM LAW PROPOSED At least 26 states already have anti-spam laws on the books, without much to show for them, but California state senator Debra Bowen is trying again, this time by proposing a bill making it a crime to send unsolicited commercial e-mail to accounts in California. Bowen says that spam "is really turning the Internet into a tool of questionable value. I had someone write to me say, 'Spam is turning the Internet into an open sewer, and as the Romans discovered, open sewers are a bad thing.'" However, Jupiter Research analyst Jared Blank says it will take technology rather than legislation to get spam under control. But filtering technology can also be a problem, and the E-mail Service Providers Coalition hopes people will report missing and legitimate e-mail caught in "spam traps." [Good idea. Be sure to do that if you find some befuddled programmer is depriving you of your NewsScan Daily for one silly reason or another, hurting our feelings by confusing us with Spam. Can you BELIEVE that?] (Reuters/USA Today 19 Feb 2003) http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2003-02-19-spam-law_x.htm LAWYERS SAY HACKERS ARE GETTING BUM RAP The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers has joined with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Sentencing Project in publishing a position paper that argues people convicted of computer-related crimes tend to receive harsher sentences than perpetrators of comparable non-computer-related offenses. "The serious nature of the offenses is overplayed," says Jennifer Granick, author of the paper and clinical director at Stanford University's Center for Internet and Society. "The (majority) of the offenses are generally disgruntled employees getting back at the employer or trying to make money." In a review of 55 cases prosecuted under the most-often used computer crime statute, only 15 involved harm to the public and only one resulted in a threat to safety. Those convicted "are receiving sentences based on the fear of the worst-case scenario rather than what the case may really be about," says Granick. The paper was submitted in response a request for public comment by the U.S. Sentencing Commission as required by the Homeland Security Act of 2002. Cybercrime legal expert Scott Frewing says he agrees with many points raised in the paper, but recommends a two-tiered sentencing threshold: "I would be comfortable in a situation where the code addresses the discrepancy between those who cause bodily injury and those that don't. If that results in the law being unfair to a virus writer, maybe that's enough to put them on notice." (CNet News.com 20 Feb 2003) http://news.com.com/2100-1001-985407.html?tag=fd_top MUSIC INDUSTRY THREATENED BY DUTCH RULING A court ruling in the Netherlands last March appears to provide legal protection for businesses that enable peer-to-peer services, where users can swap copyrighted songs and movies for free. The Dutch decision is being appealed, but the ruling demonstrates the breadth of the challenge facing music companies and other owners of copyrighted works as more P2P providers move their operations overseas. Still, record-label officials maintain that the Netherlands ruling was an aberration that will be reversed in the appeals process, noting that courts in South Korea and Japan have ruled against P2P services in copyright cases. "We intend to enforce our rights not just in the United States, but worldwide," says Cary Sherman, president of the Recording Industry Association of America. Meanwhile, when U.S. courts side with the music industry, as in last month's federal ruling against Sharman Networks, which is based in Vanuatu and offers Kazaa file-swapping software, the question of enforcement looms large. "How are they going to enforce" the judgment, questions one of Sharman's lawyers. And even in the Netherlands case, a U.S. judgment isn't automatically enforced, says Tim Kuik, director of Brein, a Dutch foundation that deals with copyright enforcement, but would probably have to go through a separate Dutch court proceeding. (Wall Street Journal 21 Feb 2003) http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1045782158479680223.djm,00.html (sub req'd) NEW LINUX NOTEBOOK PC Lindows.com says it has developed a 2.9-pound $799 notebook computer running the Linux operating system. The company says, "Until now, laptop computers have been either too expensive or too heavy to be useful for most consumers. The Lindows Mobile PC has a similar shape, size and power as the new Apple iNote but costs less than half the price." (Reuters/USA Today 20 Feb 2003) http://shorl.com/hegravadajoso AOL PREPARES FOR NEW BATTLE AGAINST SPAM America Online has told its 27 million U.S. customers that it is forming an anti-spam task force and will seek tougher legislation to stop unsolicited junk e-mail. [And we hereby offer our own unsolicited suggestion: AOL and other organizations, including universities, should offer services such as NewsScan a way of getting a permanent "Seal of Approval" certifying that what they're sending it out is not pornography, is not spam, and is not, for goodness sake, junk. We find it depressing to find out, as we occasionally do, that some filtering system is blocking us because (a) we send out mail in quantity and (b) sometime mention a word like s_ x because it is part of a legitimate news story. Come on, Task Force, get a grip.] (San Jose Mercury News 21 Feb 2003) http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/5231500.htm MICROSOFT PUTS A LOCK ON CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS Alarming organizations that encourage employee whistle-blowing on corporations engaged in wrongdoing, Microsoft has developed new technology called Windows Rights Management Services, which lets a company restrict which of its employees may access, download, print, or forward "company-sensitive" e-mail or Web material. Based on the XrML programming language, the software was created within Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing initiative focused on improving the security and privacy of information. But corporate accountability watchdogs are appalled. Joanne Royce of the nonprofit Government Accountability Project says, "It sounds to me like just another way to restrict the free flow of information. In a way it sounds like it won't hinder whistleblowers per se, because they won't even get to see this stuff." Michael Kohn of the National Whistleblower Center in Washington, D.C., calls the new technology "ludicrous" and warns, "You create a whole secret society within a corporation. Anyone who is within that circle is unlikely to be a whistleblower." (AP/USA Today 21 Feb 2003) http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2003-02-21-whistleblower_x.htm HAS YOUR COMPUTER TALKED TO YOU RECENTLY? OPCAT, a new software translation tool developed at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, enables non-technical computer users to perform simple programming changes themselves, just by telling the computer what it is they want to do. Calling OPCAT "the next quantum leap in computer programming," developer Dov Dori says that in time the technology could eliminate the need for programmers, much as draftsmen were rendered obsolete by computer-aided design (CAD) software. "Programmers translate the design of a system to actual code, but OPCAT generates code automatically from the model, so there is less need for programmers -- and a huge savings in time and money," says Dori, who notes that the versatile system can either translate graphics into spoken language or the other way around. "Furthermore, the system can slip back and forth between graphics and text, so it's not necessary to stick with one mode. You can start with graphics, then go to text and edit it, and the changes will be immediately reflected in the diagram." (Science Daily 24 Feb 2003) http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/02/030224082842.htm E-COMMERCE PURCHASES OVERWHELM CAMPUS MAILROOMS Overflowing mailrooms, crammed with packages destined for free-spending students, represent the latest campus crisis attributable to the Internet. Fueled by 24-hour high-speed connections and parents' credit cards, college students are spending like crazy -- on clothes, furniture, big-screen TVs, bicycles, computers, car tires and exercise benches. Brown University mailroom manager Fred Yattaw notes that his staff last year processed 130,000 parcels for a student body of 5,700. And since 1995, the number of packages delivered to students at Occidental College in Los Angeles has quadrupled, says Occidental CIO Thomas Slobko: "The average [number of parcels] received per day has gone from 30-ish to 120-ish, and this is a very small place." Meanwhile, Lee Rainey, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project, says students' passionate consumerism is a hallmark of contemporary campus culture. "E-commerce has met campus life. Today's college freshmen and sophomores were born right about when the first PC was marketed. They don't know any other life." And while some schools report feeling conflicted over questionable deliveries such as cases of wine and hookahs, Brown's Yattaw says his No. 1 priority is moving the merchandise: "We don't question what students receive as long as they come and get it." (Los Angeles Times 23 Feb 2003) http://shorl.com/fufufogynude DIRECT MARKETERS JOIN FIGHT AGAINST SPAM An unlikely ally has joined the battle against unsolicited commercial e-mail -- the Direct Marketing Association announced it is now backing the push for federal legislation to restrict spam. The DMA previously had urged self-regulation, but now says the spam problem has gotten totally out of hand: "The volume is so great that we have to have some sort of government intervention," says DMA senior VP Jerry Cerasale. The group says that legitimate marketers should still be allowed to use e-mail, but plans to suggest that marketers who violate consumers' requests to be removed from mailing lists should pay stiff penalties of $11,000 per incident (per unsolicited message). Spam now comprises 41% of all e-mail, according to Brightmail, and accounts for $4 billion a year in lost productivity, according to a Ferris Research study. (Wall Street Journal 25 Feb 2003) http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1046129894909517143.djm,00.html (sub req'd) U.S. PATENT SYSTEM IS BROKEN, SAYS LESSIG Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig has warned Europeans not to follow the same path toward software patent protection as the U.S., saying "The system in America is broken -- to the great detriment of software developers generally -- and there is no reason to believe the Europeans could do any better." Critiquing the last 10 years' tendency toward granting overly broad patents, he notes that software developers -- those whom patents ostensibly would protect -- are actually some of the most vocal critics of the current system. "Developing software is [now] like crossing a minefield," says Richard Stallman, the originator of the free software movement that has developed the GNU/Linux operating system. "With each design decision, you might step on a patent that will blow up your project." Lessig says that Europeans should take pains to avoid a similar quagmire: "American software developers will continue to choke on software patents, especially as more and more get enforced in massively expensive litigation Until software patents prove themselves safe and effective, Europe could gain a great deal by sparing its developers the same drug. Rather than copying a failed American policy, the Europeans could be exploring alternatives to patents that might provide protection without sinking the intended beneficiaries. No doctor would approve an untested drug for his or her patient. Nor should Europe inflict such a remedy on its already weakened software industry." (Financial Times 20 Feb 2003) http://shorl.com/buvodrafryrogre SUN BETS THE MOON ON INNOVATION Disdaining its competitors who have rushed to the Linux operating system and have locked themselves into Intel chips, Sun Microsystems is marching to a different drummer, and is betting its future on a new microprocessor technology that dramatically boosts chip performance by multi-tasking multiple computational "threads." Sun acquired the technology through its purchase of Afara Websystems, founded by former Sun software designer Les Kohn. The first example of the Afara technology is code-named Niagara, and will contain at least four processors on a single chip, with each processor capable of handling several threads at once. Sun chief executive Scott McNealy is counting on his company to find its salvation not through packaging but through continuous technological innovation: "There's lots more to be invented here. This is not a commodity." (San Jose Mercury News 24 Feb 2003) http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/5256140.htm WHAT'S PLAYING AT THE ROXY? Netflix, founded in 1998, was the first of a number of companies filling what has turned out to be a very solid business niche: online DVD rental services that send customers DVDs through the U.S. mail and allow customers to return them the same way. The companies in the business now include www.netflix.com, www.cafedvd.com, www.walmart.com, and www.filmcaddy.com. Typically, it works like this: for a fee of about $20 a month, DVDs are mailed to you with a pre-paid return envelope, and you may keep the movie as long as you'd like and mail it back when you are finished to receive the next available movie on your movie list. No late fees. DVDs are the fastest-growing technology in history, and DVD players are now in one out of three U.S. households. (USA Today 24 Feb 2003) http://shorl.com/hovekagajule FCC RULING COULD BOOST HIGH-SPEED INTERNET COSTS Last week's ruling by the Federal Communications Commission could have a long-term effect on the cost of broadband Internet access, thanks to a provision that lets Bell phone companies off the hook when it comes to sharing their newest and fastest fiber-optic networks with rivals who want to piggyback on those lines. In addition, the telcos will be required to share less of their existing networks over time. That means that non-telco ISPs like Covad likely will have to pay the Bells much higher prices, with the costs eventually passed on to consumers. The change may also precipitate some industry consolidation, as smaller companies are driven out of the market. (Wall Street Journal 26 Feb 2003) http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1046223925629222143.djm,00.html (sub req'd) AOL MAKES ITS PLAY IN THE ONLINE MUSIC MARKET For $8.95 a month, America Online subscribers will be able to listen to an unlimited number of songs from an extensive music catalog (now containing a quarter of a million items), and a $17.95-a-month premium version of the service will allow subscribers to burn ten songs a month onto a recordable CD. This is the biggest test yet of the commercial viability of legitimate music download services. (New York Times 26 Feb 2003) http://partners.nytimes.com/2003/02/26/technology/26MUSI.html *** Headlines From Edupage: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS TO ARCHIVE DIGITAL MATERIALS A new project announced last week by the Library of Congress aims to preserve large amounts of material that exists only in electronic formats. Initial funding will come from Congress, which has set aside $100 million for the project, an amount that Laura E. Campbell of the Library of Congress described as enough to get started but insufficient for long-term needs. Indeed, the Congressional appropriation anticipates matching contributions of up to $75 million from federal agencies, libraries, research institutions, and commercial interests. Early planning for the project, called the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program, has included officials from Kodak, the American Institute of Architects, Elsevier Science, Random House, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and some universities. Chronicle of Higher Education, 17 February 2003 http://chronicle.com/free/2003/02/2003021702t.htm CRITICS SAY PENNSYLVANIA WEB-FILTERING LAW GOES TOO FAR The Center for Democracy and Technology, based in Washington, D.C., has raised concerns over the actions of the attorney general of Pennsylvania to limit child pornography. Operating under the terms of a recently enacted state law, the attorney general is requiring Internet service providers to block access to pornography sites or risk fines of $5,000. The law is unusual because it targets servers that host pornographic Web sites, even if non-pornographic material is also available from that server. The result, according to the Center for Democracy and Technology, is that the Pennsylvania restrictions will prevent access to legitimate material. The group compared the action to halting mail to an apartment building because one tenant is doing something illegal with the mail. A spokesman from the Pennsylvania attorney general's office defended the strategy, saying it "has worked in nearly every case." WorldCom objected to the policy, arguing that it unfairly blocked access to non-offensive material, but a judge later ordered the company to abide by the attorney general's request. Washington Post, 20 February 2003 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33761-2003Feb20.html STUDY SAYS OPEN-SOURCE CODE IS HIGHER-QUALITY CODE Reasoning, a consulting firm that offers software inspection services, found fewer errors in the networking TCP/IP code in Linux than in five other closed-source operating systems. Per 1,000 lines of code, the Linux defect rate was 0.1, compared to between 0.6 and 0.7 for general-purpose operating systems (two of three were UNIX versions) and between 0.1 and 0.3 for two embedded operating systems. Reasoning obtained access to proprietary software for the test but would not disclose the names of the operating systems that were compared to version 2.4.19 of the Linux kernel. Offered through Red Hat and SuSE, Linux competes with Microsoft Windows and UNIX-based operating systems such as Sun Microsystems' Solaris, IBM's AIX, and Hewlett-Packard's HP-UX. The study bolsters the view that open-source software is better than proprietary code because it allows for wider scrutiny, which translates to quicker identification and resolution of software problems. CNET, 19 February 2003 http://news.com.com/2100-1001-985221.html UNIVERSITY TESTS CONTROVERSIAL MONITORING SOFTWARE For several months the University of Wyoming has been testing software from Audible Magic that allows network operators to see exactly what files are passing through the university's routers. The software goes beyond bandwidth-shaping applications, which allocate portions of a network's capacity to certain types of traffic, and recreates files that use FTP (file transfer protocol) or the Gnutella technology to identify the content. The next step, theoretically, is to compare files passing through the network and block transmission of any that are copyrighted. That prospect has many up in arms about what critics call censorship, particularly in a university setting. In a letter to universities last fall, the Electronic Privacy Information Center said, "Monitoring the content of communications is fundamentally incompatible with the mission of educational institutions." Brad Thomas, a network specialist at the University of Wyoming, noted that he doesn't want to look at what's being sent across the network, and users don't want their communications monitored. "But," he said, "it's getting to be the only way to control our bandwidth." ZDNet, 20 February 2003 http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-985027.html *** About the Project Gutenberg Monthly Newsletter: [Goes out approximately first Wednesday of each month. But different relays will get it to you at different times; you can subscribe directly, just send me email to find out how, or surf to promo.net/pg to subscribe directly by yourself.] and now About the Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter: [Goes out approximately at noon each Wednesday, but various different relays will get it to you at different times; you can subscribe directly, just send me email to find out how, or surf to promo.net/pg to subscribe directly by yourself.] *** Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists: For more information about the Project Gutenberg's mailing lists please visit the following webpage: http://promo.net/pg/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. 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