Book
collections on CD and DVD. A library for the price of a book.
Limited time offer: 2 for the price of 1
Permission is granted to freely distribute this newsletter in electronic form for non-commercial use. All other rights reserved.
Send your comments, letters to the editor, and related articles to seltzer@samizdat.com For information on who we are check www.samizdat.com/who.html
To access other issues, go to www.samizdat.com/ioad.html. The full text of all issues is available for free, with hypertext links to the sites referenced. (Please keep in mind that URLs frequently change. We will attempt to update the information in this on-line edition, but don't expect perfection.)
For collections plain-text books on CD and DVD, a library for the price of a book, visit our online store at http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat
You can now receive Internet-on-a-Disk by email, by signing up at Yahoo Groups. Either send email to subscribe-ioad@yahoogroups.com , or register at the Web site http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ioad. You can also use that group to discuss related matters and share insights with other readers and with me (Richard Seltzer seltzer@samizdat.com).
Gutenberg Project ftp uiarchive.cso.uiuc.edu/pub/etext/gutenberg/etext94 http://jg.cso.uiuc.edu/pg_home.html
NATO LISTSERV@CC1.KULEUVEN.AC.BE
And most people who have tried reading books that way don't have the time to search for, download, and organize books from the Internet.
A simple alternative is book collections on CD and DVD. Our collections are extremely inexpensive and are organized to be easy to use. You can read them any time, without an Internet connection.
To see the full range of our book collections on CD and DVD, please visit our Yahoo Store at http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat
For suggestions on how to get the most out of such collections, see our New Customer Orientation Message and our Teachers' and Students' Guide.
For further information, please email me at samizdat@samizdat.com
Over the last decade, consumers turned the computer industry upside-down, insisting on an "open" computing environment. They would not allow artificial barriers to prevent them from taking advantage of public domain, freely available, and inexpensive software.
Now we can and must do the same to the book publishing industry.
Schools and libraries must band together and insist on "open texts."
For decades we've had the ability to photocopy and to put words into electronic form. Yet we still use the same kind of copyright-protected, expensive textbooks as we did a hundred years ago.
Textbook publishers have been able to perpetuate their traditional business by claiming copyright on compilations and edited versions of public domain information. And in so doing, they have undermined the educational potential of photocopying and electronic texts.
As it is, an English teacher feels guilty about photocopying an Andrew Marvell poem from an anthology. And a history teacher dare not put together a tailored collection of public documents drawn from a variety of "copyrighted" sources.
The technology exists to radically change book publishing. But, as a rule, technology alone does not lead to an economic revolution that can benefit all. Two other conditions are necessary.
First, a set of dedicated individuals must work creatively to apply the new technology and must refrain from laying claim to ownership of their work.
Second, consumers must band together and use that "free" alternative as competitive leverage to force radical change in the industry.
Public domain software funded by universities and government research projects and developed by individuals motivated by a sense of community formed the basis for the consumer revolution in the computing industry.
That revolution resulted in the global, free-flowing, open computing environment we enjoy on the Internet today.
Now, the public domain etexts being made widely available over the Internet by dedicated individuals in such projects as Gutenberg, the Oxford Archive, wiretap, and Libellus, and by the U.S. government, form the basis for a consumer revolution in publishing.
The Internet, which is the means for rapid dissemination of public domain etexts, is also the means for us to band together, share experiences, and support one another in our joint effort.
Now is the time to act.
There is no need to lobby and politic for changes in copyright law. We can simply use our combined purchasing power to force change in the book publishing industry.
In free enterprise, the consumer reigns when the consumer speaks with one voice.
Let's lay claim to our own territory. Let's say that beginning with the 1995-96 school year (allowing time for the industry to readjust its plans), we will no longer buy copyright-protected editions of public domain works.
If we need Huckleberry Finn or Virgil in Latin or documents of history -- whether in electronic form or on paper -- we will only accept public domain editions. We will only buy editions that allow us to make copies without restriction.
If publishers wish to sell classic works and public information to our schools and libraries, let them clearly mark their books, disks and CD ROMs "open text -- copy freely."
What do we stand to gain?
We would like to use this newsletter as a forum to share the experiences of those who push ahead in this direction.
We'd like to keep here a roll of those schools and libraries which actually take the pledge to only buy open texts. By so doing we can provide mutual support and serve notice to book publishers -- the revolution has begun.
This site is published by Samizdat Express, 213 Deerfield Lane, West Roxbury, MA 02132. (203) 553-9925 seltzer@samizdat.com
Book
collections on CD and DVD. A library for the price of a book.
Limited time
offer: 2 for the price of 1