Pgweekly 2004 07 07 Part 1

*The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, July 7, 2004 PT1* *****eBooks Readable By Both Humans and Computers Since July 4, 1971***** NOW STARTING OUR 34TH YEAR!!! **There you see it, from July, 1971 to July, 2004. . .and still counting** Newsletter editors needed! Please email [email protected] or [email protected] Anyone who would care to get advance editions: please email [email protected] eBook Milestones 13,155 eBooks As Of Today!!! 6,845 to go to 20,000 We've Added Over 2,000 New eBooks This Year We Are Nearly 1/3 of the Way from 10,000 to 20,000!!! *** It took ~32 years, from 1971 to 2003 to do our 1st 10,000 It took ~10 years from 1993 to 2003 to grow from 100 eBooks to 10,100 It took ~3 years from 2001 to 2004 for our last 10,000 *** [The Newsletter is now being sent in two sections, so you can directly go to the portions you find most interesting: 1. Founder's Comments, News, Notes & Queries, and 2. Weekly eBook Update Listing.] Today, and until we actually GET new Newsletter editors who want to do another portion, there will be only 2 parts. . .this is Part 1, and the eBook listings in Part 2 [New Project Gutenberg Documents]. [Since we are between Newsletter editors, these 2 parts may undergo a few changes while we are finding a new Newsletter editor. Email us: [email protected] and [email protected] if you would like to volunteer.] This is Michael Hart's "Founder's Comments" section of the Newsletter Over Our 32 26/52 Year History, We Have Now Averaged About 400 eBooks/Yr And This Year We Are Averaging that Same New eBook Level. . .PER MONTH!

We Are Averaging About 375 eBooks Per Month This Year 86 per week *** Here is another selection from Bill Hammack's Commentaries, this time on The U.S. Declaration of Independence, which is Project Gutenberg eBook #1, 33 years old as of this Sunday: Every Fourth of July I read the Declaration of Independence. I do this partly because I enjoy its eloquent phrases, partly because its lofty sentiments fill me with historical pride, but mostly I reread it to be a better citizen. It is, after all, the founding document. Over the years I've detected, with my engineers eye, an unmistakable trace of science and math in the Declaration. It reads like a geometric proof with its "laws of nature" and its truths held to be "self-evident" like axioms. It first lays down axioms like "All men are created equal" and then derives, if you will, an indictment against King George the Third. I've learned that there is more than an echo of scientific reasoning in the Declaration, phrases like "laws of nature" had deep meaning for the Founders. Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, all members of the committee that wrote the Declaration, used science as a source for metaphors. They believed it to be the supreme expression of human reason. For no Founder was science more important than Jefferson, the Declaration's main author. In a letter he revealed, "Nature intended me for the tranquil pursuits of science, by rendering them my supreme delight." He filled his writings with discussions of plows, air pumps, compasses, canal locks, balloons and steam power. He stocked his library at Monticello with books on every aspect of science and technology. None more important to him than Euclid's geometry and Isaac Newton's great works on physics. At Monticello Jefferson had a picture gallery of intellectual giants. He assigned a high place to three portraits, one of which was Isaac Newton. He esteemed Newton as one of the greatest minds the world had produced. Jefferson had both the Latin original and English translations of Newton's Principia in his library; he is surely our only president who's actually read it. So, when Jefferson opened the Declaration of Independence by asking the American people to assume the powers of the Earth "to which the Laws of Nature .... entitle[d] them." he meant more than natural law - the supreme moral law known to humankind through reason. To Jefferson and the other Founders, the words "Laws of Nature" had a deeper resonance: They evoked a picture of Newton's laws of motion, of the universe as one great harmonious order obeying mathematical laws. A world in which it was natural that humans have inalienable rights. How does all this help me today to be a better citizen? Well, in hindsight, the Founders too glibly made a leap from the laws of gravity to the laws of human interaction. In reading the Declaration one can easily forget that the dignity and "the rights of man" are neither a self-evident axiom, nor an inalienable right, but instead a

hard-earned acquisition that we must continually work to keep. Copyright 2004 William S. Hammack Enterprises [Republished here with his personal permission] [We are continuing our efforts to collect founding documents from every country [when legal to republish] and from every period. If you have access to any of these, please contact us. Thanks!] *** In addition to previous mentions noted from the general media, eBooks have now made it to the comic strips: FRANK & ERNEST talked about downloading "Civil Disobedience" a few days ago on June 18. I emailed the author to see if there was a direct connection. For those who said eBooks would never become a general item: Now that eBooks have made it into the comic strips, there will be no way to argue that they are not part of general society. ***

HOT Requests!!!

We're working up a team to read our eBooks into MP3 files for the visually impaired and other audio book users. Let us know if you'd like to join this group. More information at http://gutenberg.net/audio *** Project Gutenberg Needs DVD Burners So far we have sent out 2.5 million eBooks via snailmail! We currently have access to a dozen DVD burners. If you have a DVD burner or know someone with one, please email Aaron: [email protected] We can set you up with images or snail you these DVDs for you to copy. You can either snail them to readers whose addresses we can send you, or you can do a stack of the these and send the whole box back for reshipping to individual addresses. We can also send you blank discs in quantities of 50-100 and *perhaps* also provide envelopes, sleeves, etc. We also have many volunteers who only have time to do one

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It took us from July 1971 to July 2000 to produce our first 2,249 eBooks! That's 26 WEEKS as Compared to ~29 Years! 49 101 347

New eBooks This Week New eBooks Last Week New eBooks This Month [June]

375 355 203 103

Average Average Average Average

2248 4164 2441 1240 ==== 10093 13,155 8,411 ==== 4,746 363

New New New New

Per Per Per Per

eBooks eBooks eBooks eBooks

Month Month Month Month

in in in in

in in in in

2004 2003 2002 2001

2004 2003 2002 2001

New eBooks Since Start Of 2001 That's Only 42.00 Months! Total Project Gutenberg eBooks eBooks This Week Last Year New eBooks In Last 12 Months eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia [Sorry, we rereleased data on one twice, so I listed 364 last week, my apologies.]

We're still keeping up with Moore's Law! Moore's Law 12 month percentage =

96%

Moore's Law 18 month percentage =

95%

[100% of Moore's Law = doubling every 18 months] *** On 13 Mar 2001, PGDP completed its first eBook for posting to the Project Gutenberg collection (eBook #3320). Since then, the Online Distributed Proofreading Team has produced more than 4600 eBooks. Projects Jan 2004 Feb 2004 Mar 2004 Apr 2004 May 2004 Jun 2004 Jul 2004

completed since the beginning of the year: - 267 - 421 - 365 - 276 - 235 - 232 34 (as of Jul 7)

Two years ago they completed their 318th eBook (#5259). One year ago they completed their 1,454th eBook (#8138). This week they are well past their 4,700th eBook!!!!!!!

Check out our website at gutenberg.net, and see below to learn how you can get INSTANT access to our eBooks via FTP servers even before the new eBooks listed below appear in our catalog. eBooks are posted throughout the week.

You can even get daily lists.

Info on subscribing to daily, weekly, monthly Newsletters, listservs: http://gutenberg.net/subs.shtml *** FLASHBACK!!! 2248 New eBooks So Far in 2004 It took us ~29 years for the first 2248 ! That's the 6.00 MONTHS of 2004 as Compared to ~29 YEARS!!! Here Is A Sample Of What Books Were Being Done Around #2248 Aug Aug Aug Aug Aug

2000 2000 2000 2000 2000

The Pioneers, by James Fenimore Cooper [Cooper#3] How to Live on 24 Hours a Day, by Arnold Bennett Tom Swift And His Motor-Boat, by Victor Appleton The Discovery of Guiana, by Walter Raleigh WR#3] He Fell In Love With His Wife, by Edward P. Roe

[tpnrsxxx.xxx] [24hrsxxx.xxx] [02tomxxx.xxx] [guianxxx.xxx] [inlhwxxx.xxx]

2275 2274 2273 2272 2271

Jul Jul . . Jul . . Jul

2000 2000 . 2000 . 2000

The Complete Shakespeare's First Folio [35 Plays] [00ws1xxx.xxx] 2270 Cymbeline, by Wm. Shakespeare [First Folio]=[FF] [0ws39xxx.xxx] 2269 The Merchant of Venice, by Wm. Shakespeare

[FF] [0ws18xxx.xxx] 2243

The Tempest, by William Shakespeare

[FF] [0ws41xxx.xxx] 2235

*** Today Is Day #187 of 2004 This Completes Week #26 and Month #6.00 184 Days/26 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year] 6845 Books To Go To #20,000 [Our production year begins/ends 1st Wednesday of the month/year] 87 79 47 24

Weekly Weekly Weekly Weekly

Average Average Average Average

in in in in

2004 2003 2002 2001

41

Only 41 Numbers Left On Our Reserved Numbers list [Used to be well over 100]

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***Headline News*** [PG Editor's Comments In Brackets] >From NewsScan: WHEN A FEATURE BECOMES A BUG A report by Secunia, a computer security company, says that an Internet Explorer feature is being used by network vandals to convert Web sites into virus transmitters. (It's not a bug but a feature intended to make browsing more convenient.) Two other flaws in Microsoft products allowed hackers to direct Internet Explorer browsers to automatically run the virus when visiting an infected site. Microsoft says that updated code will be automatically installed on computers set to receive it. The update is also available at http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com. (AP/USA Today 3 Jul 2004) http://tinyurl.com/yrgpq A KICK OF ADRENALINE FOR PUBLIC RADIO The nonprofit Public Radio Exchange (PRX) in Cambridge, Mass., is a radio distribution service that, for a minimum $50 annual fee, lets a producer post audio material for audition and licensing. Other members can then listen free and possibly choose to acquire a feature or news piece for broadcast. Executive Director Jake Shapiro says the goal is to give public radio "a kick of adrenaline." PRX currently has more than 2,700 members, most of whom have chosen its free "Vox Pop" membership. "Of course, we'd prefer more paying members," says Shapiro. "We aim to become self-sustainable in three to five years." (Washington Post 5 Jul 2004) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29919-2004Jul5.html ISPs WIN MUSIC DOWNLOAD CASE Canada's Supreme Court has ruled 9-0 that Internet service providers do not have to pay royalties to composers and artists for music downloaded by Web customers, since companies providing wide access to the Web are merely "intermediaries" who aren't bound by Canadian copyright legislation. At issue was an effort by the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) to force Internet service providers to pay a tariff. SOCAN also wanted to extend Canadian copyright law beyond the country's borders and apply it to offshore Web sites that serve Canadians. Opposing the effort was the Canadian Association of Internet Service Providers. (The Australian 1 Jul 2004) Rec'd from John Lamp, Deakin U. http://tinyurl.com/28ouv [More below] RFID COULD COST 4 MILLION JOBS BY 2007 The Yankee Group, a prominent market research firm, is predicting that RFID tags will cost four million U.S. jobs by 2007, throughout numerous industries. (RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification, a technology embedded for inventory and tracking purposes into products, materials, and shipments.) However, Yankee Group analyst Adam Zabel thinks that most workers who lose their jobs due to increased efficiencies made possible by RFID technology will be able to obtain 'more value-added' positions. [Isn't that what they ALWAYS say. . .then "find out" that only 40% of their employees decided to take advantage of their offer, since their new jobs wouldn't be nearly as good; "Would you like fries with that?" The average "new job" these days pays nearly $10,000 less that the previous job from which the worker "transferred."]

(Vnunet 2 Jul 2004)

http://www.vnunet.com/news/1156369

[And in a related "Would You Like Fries With That?" story] CHAMBER OF COMMERCE TOUTS BENEFITS OF OFFSHORING U.S. Chamber of Commerce president and chief executive Thomas Donohue is urging American companies to send work overseas as a way to boost national competitiveness, and he's scornful of labor leaders and politicians who want to limit or ban offshoring of government contracts. "Without fail, businesses go where they want and where they can earn money -- investment is fungible. We're not going to create more jobs by building barriers." While admitting that "one job sent overseas, if it happens to be my job, is one too many," Donoghue insists that the overall benefits of offshoring jobs outweigh the cost. One management consultant who heard Donoghue's talk yesterday at the Commonwealth Club of California said: "In theory, it's promoting change so that the quality of jobs that remain in the United States remains higher than elsewhere. But the pace of change is fast, and trying to stay a step ahead is difficult. It almost comes down to luck, being in the right career at the right time." (AP/San Jose Mercury News 30 Jun 2004) http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/9051372.htm REBELLION AGAINST DIRECTORY OF CELL PHONE NUMBERS A proposal from the the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA) to create a national directory of cell phone numbers has created quite a stir across the country. Northwestern University sociologist Bernard Beck comments: "As life becomes more technologically complex, people reflexively pull back. We don't want to give up any personal information because it seems every day someone figures out a new way to victimize us." U.S. Cellular promises to withhold customers' numbers from any directory and Verizon Wireless says it will not participate in a wireless directory, but various other carriers have decided to use the directory service, which could start next year. A spokesperson for CTIA says the industry doesn't plan to list numbers without permission and that the numbers will be available only by dialing 411. Andrew Cole of A.T. Kearney comments: "It's more than likely that your friends already have your cell-phone number, so all a directory does is make it available to strangers. Most people don't want that. Our research shows that people want to simplify their lives. They're subject to a barrage of external contacts they haven't initiated. In the old days it was cool to be connected, but these days the sign of someone who's reached society's higher echelons is that he's disconnected." (Chicago Tribune/San Jose Mercury News 1 Jul 2004) http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/9059631.htm [Of course, THAT won't stop the phone spammers who all EVERY number." TINY KEYBOARDS [Not Your Average Joe. . .Not Joe. . .Nacho. . . .] Phone makers have been rushing to add standard keyboards onto tiny cell phones and other devices: Motorola's new A630 cell phone flips open into a miniature laptop mode, so that keys can be pressed with thumbs; Nokia's 6810 flips open to produce a keyboard that spreads out like two wings on either side of the screen; Samsung has designed a fist-size box that uses a laser to project a keyboard on any flat surface. Yet some industry analysts have been questioning the demand for traditional Qwerty keypads (named for the six letters at the top left of a typewriter

keyboard): a survey by Strategy Analytics found that only 13% of cell phone users said they wanted one, and Seamus McAteer of the Zelos Group thinks that the Qwerty keypad is "a generational thing" -- in that today's teens have grown up sending text messages using phone keys and have no interest in using traditional keyboards on small devices. (USA Today 1 Jul 2004) http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-07-01-cell-key_x.htm FRENCH AUTHORITY FORBIDS "DIDTHEYREADIT?" SERVICE CNIL, the French data protection authority, has declared Rampell Software' s new mail-service 'Did they read it?' to be illegal. (Subscribers to "DidTheyReadIt?" get a report about the exact time their e-mail was opened, for how long, on what kind of operating system and if the mail was forwarded to other people.) The CNIL finds the service unacceptable under French privacy Legislation; as a result, any French subscriber to this service risks a prison sentence of 5 years plus a substantial fine. (EDRIgram 1 Jul 2004) www.edri.org Rec'd from Jim Sterne via Mark Gibbs COURT RULES E-MAIL EAVESDROPPING OKAY [It's a technicality. . .if you really look, you'll find that your phone calls are often digitally stored for short amounts of time, too, so they could tap anyone and anything based on this decision. More below.] In a surprise decision, a federal appeals court has ruled that it was acceptable for a company that offered e-mail service to peruse messages sent by its subscribers. The case stems from 1998 when it was discovered that Interloc, a now-defunct literary clearinghouse, surreptitiously copied messages sent to its subscribers by rival Amazon in order to "develop a list of books, learn about competitors and attain a commercial advantage." An Interloc executive was later indicted on an illegal wiretapping charge, but yesterday's ruling upheld a federal judge's dismissal of that charge on the grounds that the e-mails were copied while in "electronic storage" (during the process of being routed through a network of servers to recipients). The Wiretap Act prohibits unauthorized eavesdropping on messages that are not stored -- such as a real-time telephone conversation -- but does not afford the same protection to stored messages. In a dissenting opinion, Appeals Court Judge Kermit Lipez wrote that the ruling unravels "decades of practice and precedent regarding the scope of the Wiretap Act" and essentially renders the act "irrelevant to the protection of wire and electronic privacy." In a concurring statement, the Electronic Frontier Foundation said that yesterday's ruling "dealt a grave blow to the privacy of Internet communications." (AP 30 Jun 2004) http://apnews.excite.com/article/20040701/D83HMB0O0.html LIAR LIAR PANTS ON FIRE (AS JUDGED BY SOFTWARE) Voice-based lie-detector tests using voice stress analysis have become increasingly popular with law enforcement agencies, telemarketing companies, matchmakers, and claims adjusters, even though critics charge that the technology is unreliable and invasive of privacy. Defending the industry against such charges, David Watson of V Worldwide Inc. says that each of a person's various motivations for lying has its own physiological manifestations (each being a "self-defense mechanism of the body coming from a completely different place"). But David T. Lykken, an emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota, says: "It is implausible to imagine that the only times that your body shows increased arousal when you answer a question is when you're being deceptive." Future uses for the

technology will include algorithms for use by airport screeners, political analysts, and lovers. (Mad Love, an offering already available, is "a cellular service which allows you to find out if the person you're speaking with is attracted to you"). New York Times 1 Jul 2004 http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/01/technology/circuits/01voic.html COMCAST SEES CONVERGENCE IN YOUR FUTURE Stephen Burke, president of Comcast Cable, predicts: "The television industry is going to change more in the next five years than it has in the last 20." Comcast says it's now ready to roll out next-generation services that require abundant bandwidth and two-way communications. These include: video e-mail services; video-on-demand (VOD) programming that goes far beyond movies; an Internet portal-like screen that subscribers can call up on their PC, TV or phone to access voicemail, e-mail and faxes; and extensive offerings of high-definition local TV station broadcasts. "We have a vision for the company to not be a commodity provider," says Comcast CEO Brian Roberts. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-06-30-comcast_x.htm [Personally, I like the idea of one price for TV and PC cable, phone, and all those services. . .BUT. . .there is ONE *HUGE* problem. . . . If your service goes down, you lose it all. . .you can't call repair, because your phone is gone, too. My solution: I already have phones from two different carries. . .and you don't know how many times I've used one to call up and complain to the other, after having to tromp around the block in the snow at midnight to call emergency repair.] BELT-TIGHTENING AT MICROSOFT Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is calling on his employees to do a billion dollars worth of cost-cutting, so that the company can address shareholder concerns about its stagnant stock price. In his annual message, the questions Ballmer posed to Microsoft employees were: "Will we be first with important innovations? Will process excellence lead to greater ability to make an individual difference? Will our focus on costs hurt employees personally and will it hinder new investments? Will we grow and will our stock price rise? Will the PC remain a vital tool, and will we remain a great company?" In response to employees who had wondered why Microsoft hasn't used its large quantity of cash for employee benefits, Ballmer's response was that "the cash is shareholders' money, so we need to either invest in new opportunities or return it to them." (New York Times 7 July, 2004) (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/07/technology/07soft.html BELT-TIGHTENING AT MICROSOFT Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is calling on his employees to do a billion dollars worth of cost-cutting, so that the company can address shareholder concerns about its stagnant stock price. In his annual message, the questions Ballmer posed to Microsoft employees were: "Will we be first with important innovations? Will process excellence lead to greater ability to make an individual difference? Will our focus on costs hurt employees personally and will it hinder new investments? Will we grow and will our stock price rise? Will the PC remain a vital tool, and will we remain a great company?" In response to employees who had wondered why Microsoft hasn't used its large quantity of cash for employee benefits, Ballmer's response was that "the cash is shareholders' money, so we need to either invest in new opportunities or return it to them." (New York Times 7 Jul 2004) (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/07/technology/07soft.html

You have been reading excerpts from NewsScan: NewsScan Daily is underwritten by RLG, a world-class organization making significant and sustained contributions to the effective management and appropriate use of information technology. To subscribe or unsubscribe to the text, html, or handheld versions of NewsScan Daily, send the appropriate subscribe or unsubscribe messages (i.e., with the word 'subscribe' or 'unsubscribe' in the subject line) to: Text version: Send message to [email protected] Html version: Send mail to [email protected] NewsScan-To-Go: http://www.newsscan.com/handheld/current.html *** >From Edupage US-CERT ADVISES SWITCHING BROWSERS In light of a recent announcement about an "extremely critical" security vulnerability in Internet Explorer (IE), the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) has issued a warning advising computer users to stop using Microsoft's browser. US-CERT is a nonprofit formed in September 2003 by the Department of Homeland Security and the public and private sectors to improve computer security preparedness and response. According to the US-CERT notice, there are "significant vulnerabilities in technologies relating to the IE domain/zone security model, the DHTML object model, MIME-type determination, and ActiveX." The IE bug allows hackers to install spyware on users' computers without any action on the part of the user. The notice goes on to say that, particularly for browsing untrusted sites, use of another browser is an effective way to avoid the security risks mentioned. Internet News, 29 June 2004 http://www.internetnews.com/security/article.php/3374931 APPEALS COURT SAYS ISPS CAN READ E-MAIL A federal appeals court has upheld a lower-court ruling to dismiss charges against Bradford Councilman, who was charged under the Wiretap Act for reading others' e-mail. Councilman operated an online bookselling company called Interloc and offered some customers "@interloc.com" e-mail addresses, making the company an ISP. Councilman is alleged to have made copies of e-mail that came from Amazon, in an attempt to gain competitive advantage. The appeals court ruled that the e-mails were saved, if only momentarily in a computer's memory, and were technically not intercepted. Because the Wiretap Act applies to intercepted transmissions, the court ruled that it does not apply in this case. The court admitted the law may be "out of step" with current technologies but said that, as written, the Wiretap Act does not prohibit Councilman's actions. Andrew Good, one of Councilman's attorneys, said many ISPs, including employers and educational institutions, look at incoming e-mail, such as when they perform virus scans. Finding Councilman guilty, said Good, would make all such actions by ISPs illegal. Privacy advocates disagreed, however, and said the decision sets a dangerous precedent for reading electronic conversations, including voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone calls. CNET, 30 June 2004 http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5253782.html

CANADIAN COURT REJECTS PLAN TO CHARGE ISPS ROYALTIES The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that ISPs cannot be required to pay royalties to record companies for the music that users download. Representatives of the music industry had lobbied the courts to compel such royalties, but the Supreme Court said, "It is clear that Parliament did not want copyright disputes between creators and users to be visited on the heads of the Internet intermediaries." The Court did acknowledge that although use of the Internet should be encouraged, it should not happen "at the expense" of those who create original works. Nevertheless, the Court said ISPs should not bear the burden of copyright enforcement. The decision is the second in the past three months that favored ISPs over copyright owners. In March, a Canadian court ruled against record companies that had sought to force ISPs to divulge the identities of file traders suspected of copyright infringement. Reuters, 30 June 2004 http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=5557579 MICROSOFT SETTLES LAWSUITS IN MINNESOTA AND VERMONT In its ongoing antitrust battles, Microsoft has settled cases with the states of Minnesota--whose case was the only one to go to trial--and Vermont. Microsoft has been accused of anticompetitive practices that drove other companies out of business and allowed Microsoft to overcharge consumers. In both states, as in other Microsoft settlements, the company will offer consumers vouchers that can be redeemed for hardware or software from any company. In Vermont, the total for the vouchers is $9.7 million; 50 percent of unused vouchers will be given to the state's public schools. In Minnesota, where the trial had begun seven weeks ago, Microsoft agreed to provide vouchers for $174.5 million, again with one-half of unused vouchers going to Minnesota public schools. In Minnesota, however, Microsoft also agreed to cash payments. Under the settlement, the company will give $2.5 million in cash to the University of Minnesota's Institute of Technology, as well as $2.5 million in vouchers. Microsoft will also pay another $2.5 million in cash to the Minnesota Legal Aid Society. Internet News, 2 July 2004 http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3376521 You have been reading excerpts from Edupage: If you have questions or comments about Edupage, http://news.com.com/2100-1040-958352.html or send e-mail to: [email protected] To SUBSCRIBE to Edupage, send a message to [email protected] and in the body of the message type: SUBSCRIBE Edupage YourFirstName YourLastName *** More Headline News Mostly Avoided By The Major U.S. Media DUTCH PARLIAMENT FORCES MINISTER BRINKHORST TO WITHDRAS SUPPORT FOR SOFTWARE PATENTS DIRECTIVE Today, July the 1st, the Dutch Parliament has decided to direct Minister

Brinkhorst and Secretary of State van Gennip (Economic Affairs) to withdraw the Dutch vote in support of the Council of Ministers' text for the Directive on Software Patents. This is the first time in the history of the EU that such a course of action has been undertaken. The idea of allowing patents on software has been strongly criticized among SMEs, scientists and consumer organisations. They inhibit investments in Research and Development and contribute to higher prices. Commentators also fear the rise of a "lawyers paradise" in Europe such as is found in the USA, where programmers are constantly threatened by lawsuits. This act represents an incisive criticism of the European Council of Ministers' attempts to introduce broad patentability of software. Minister Brinkhorst, acting on behalf of the Netherlands, endorsed the Council's current proposal, which not only reiterated the terms of the Council's strongly criticized first proposal, but went even further, directly rebuffing the clear stance assumed by the EU Parliament, which voted to add numerous amendments which made clear how the category of logical algorithms would be treated. The European Parliament's version asserted that patents would only be allowed for industrial inventions (e.g. washing machines) and would not be made possible for pure software. All these adaptations were removed in the Council of Ministers' controversial version. Earlier, Brinkhorst described the Council proposal to the Dutch Parliament as a compromise with the EP. In recent legislative debates, Van Gennip was forced to admit that this was incorrect information, and attributed it to "an error in the word processor." The Dutch Parliament apparently didn't buy this explanation and today she rendered an historic and groundbreaking decision, calling upon Minister Brinkhorst and van Gennip to withdraw the Netherland's supporting vote in the European Council and convert it to an abstention. This measure is possible because at the present moment there is only a "political agreement" and the "formal vote" can only take place after the contested text has been translated into the 20 European Languages. An emergency brake move in the procedure such as this has never been exercised before. With this decision, the Dutch Parliament demonstrates the active interest her public holds in the debate over software patents, and her recognition and appreciation for the adaptations introduced by the European Parliament. Dieter Van Uytvanck, spokesman of FFII Netherlands, stresses the importance of this decision: This political signal reaches much further than just The Netherlands. We hope that other European countries that also have their doubts about the proposal of the Council will also withdraw their support, so that the current proposal no longer has a majority. The historic precedent is there now. Let this be a lesson for the lawmakers in Brussels: the European citizen watches you closely. It is much better to take this into account from the beginning as it is to get into trouble later.

Contact Wiebe van der Worp [email protected] tel. 06 28 195 808 Ir. Arend Lammertink: [email protected] tel. 06 5425 6426 Dieter Van Uytvanck: [email protected] tel. +32 499 16 70 10 *** STRANGE QUOTE OF THE WEEK "It's [the Irag War] is good for business, bad for the people." Vice President of a Halliburton subcontractor. *** SIMPLE SOLUTION OF THE WEEK One of our larger local cities got tired of waiting for new state or national medical malpractic legislation. In an effort to stop their doctors from closing up shop Carbondale, home of Southern Illinois University, passed a law stating that all local medical malpractice cases must be filed locally, at the county courthouse, and the punitive damages must be limited to three times damages. Of course, I have a feeling that if I accidentally cut off the hand of presiding judge, s/he would sue me for more than the $40,000{?} alotted for actual damages, and the $120,000{?} in punitive damages. One more point of view, how "accidental" is it if the doctor in question has made this decision before? In light of that, they also passed a law requiring the doctors to make available to their patients a list of all state sanctions that have been imposed upon them. In addition, _I_ would propose a law regulating costs of the malpractice insurance: if a patient goes in for a procedure in which the predicted failure rate is 1%, then they pay an additional 1% over the normal costs associated with that procedure. Then at least the cost of the failed procedures is already covered,

and it encourages the doctors to use the real figures, as they have to pay the difference if the figures were too low. If you wanted to cover the additional 3% for punitive damages, that could be added to make 4%. The fact is that they would probably also add another 1% for administrative costs, for a total of 5%. Thus a $1,000 procedure would cost $1,050, and the $10,000 procedures would cost $10,500, and the whole issue of malpractice insurance would be avoided. *** About the Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter: Goes out approximately at noon each Wednesday, but various different relays will get it to you at different times; you can subscribe directly, just send me email to find out how, or to subscribe directly by yourself, go to: http://gutenberg.net/subs.shtml and About the Project Gutenberg Monthly Newsletter: Goes out approximately first Wednesday of each month. But different relays will get it to you at different times; you can subscribe directly, just send me email to find out how, or to subscribe directly by yourself, go to: http://gutenberg.net/subs.shtml *** Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists: For more information about the Project Gutenberg's mailing lists please visit the following webpage: http://gutenberg.net/subs.html Archives and personal settings: The Lyris Web interface has an easy way to browse past mailing list contents, and change some personal settings. Visit http://listserv.unc.edu and select one of the Project Gutenberg lists. Trouble? If you are having trouble subscribing, unsubscribing or with anything else related to the mailing lists, please email [email protected] to contact the lists' (human) administrator. If you would just like a little more information about Lyris

features, you can find their help information at http://www.lyris.com/help