May 2006 - LIS-Forum - ncsi.iisc.ernet.in

"Strong Copyright + DRM + Weak Net Neutrality = Digital Dystopia?" Preprint
by Charles W. Bailey, Jr. 05 May '06

05 May '06

A preprint of my "Strong Copyright + DRM + Weak Net Neutrality = Digital Dystopia?" paper is now available. http://www.digital-scholarship.com/cwb/DigitalDystopia.pdf It will appear in Information Technology and Libraries 25, no. 3 (2006). This quote from the paper's conclusion sums it up: What this paper has said is simply this: three issues--a dramatic expansion of the scope, duration, and punitive nature of copyright laws; the ability of DRM to lock-down content in an unprecedented fashion; and the erosion of Net neutrality--bear careful scrutiny by those who believe that the Internet has fostered (and will continue to foster) a digital revolution that has resulted in an extraordinary explosion of innovation, creativity, and information dissemination. These issues may well determine whether the much-touted "information superhighway" lives up to its promise or simply becomes the "information toll road" of the future, ironically resembling the pre-Internet online services of the past. For those who want a longer preview of the paper, here's the introduction: Blogs. Digital photo and video sharing. Podcasts. Rip/Mix/Burn. Tagging. Vlogs. Wikis. These buzzwords point to a fundamental social change fueled by cheap PCs and servers, the Internet and its local wired/wireless feeder networks, and powerful, low-cost software: citizens have morphed from passive media consumers to digital media producers and publishers. Libraries and scholars have their own set of buzz words: digital libraries, digital presses, e-prints, institutional repositories, and open access journals to name a few. They connote the same kind of change: a democratization of publishing and media production using digital technology. It appears that we are on the brink of an exciting new era of Internet innovation: a kind of digital utopia. Dr. Gary Flake of Microsoft has provided one striking vision of what could be (with a commercial twist) in a presentation entitled "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Imminent Internet Singularity," and there are many other visions of possible future Internet advances. When did this metamorphosis begin? It depends on who you ask. Let's say the late 1980's, when the Internet began to get serious traction and an early flowering of noncommercial digital publishing occurred. In the subsequent twenty-odd years, publishing and media production went from being highly centralized, capital-intensive analog activities with limited and well-defined distribution channels to being diffuse, relatively low-cost digital activities with the global Internet as their distribution medium. Not to say that print and conventional media are dead, of course, but it is clear that their era of dominance is waning. The future is digital. Nor is it to say that entertainment companies (e.g., film, music, radio, and television companies) and information companies (e.g., book, database, and serial publishers) have ceded the digital content battlefield to the upstarts. Quite the contrary. High-quality thousand-page-per-volume scientific journals and Hollywood blockbusters cannot be produced for pennies, even with digital wizardry. Information and entertainment companies still have an important role to play, and, even if they didn't, they hold the copyrights to a significant chunk of our cultural heritage. Entertainment and information companies have understood for some time that they must adopt to the digital environment or die, but this change has not always been easy, especially when it involves concocting and embracing new business models. Nonetheless, they intend to thrive and prosper--and to do whatever it takes to succeed. As they should, since they have an obligation to their shareholders to do so. The thing about the future is that it is rooted in the past. Culture, even digital culture, builds on what has gone before. Unconstrained access to past works helps determine the richness of future works. Inversely, when past works are inaccessible except to a privileged minority, it impoverishes future works. This brings us to a second trend that stands in opposition to the first. Put simply, it is the view that intellectual works are "property"; that this property should be protected with the full force of civil and criminal law; that creators have perpetual, transferable property rights; and that contracts, rather than copyright law, should govern the use of intellectual works. A third trend is also at play: the growing use of Digital Rights Management (DRM) technologies. When intellectual works were in paper form (or other tangible forms), they could only be controlled at the object-ownership or object-access levels (a library controlling the circulation of a copy of a book is an example of the second case). Physical possession of a work, such as a book, meant that the user had full use of it (e.g., the user could read the entire book and photocopy pages from it). When works are in digital form and they are protected by some types of DRM, this may no longer true. For example, a user may only be able to view a single chapter from a DRM-protected e-book and may not be able to print it. The fourth and final trend deals with how the Internet functions at its most fundamental level. The Internet was designed to be content, application, and hardware "neutral." As long as certain standards were met, the network did not discriminate. One type of content was not given preferential delivery speed over another. One type of content was not charged for delivery while another wasn't. One type of content was not blocked (at least by the network) while another wasn't. In recent years, "network neutrality" has come under attack. The collision of these trends has begun in courts, legislatures, and the marketplace. It is far from over. As we shall see, it's outcome will determine what the future of digital culture looks like. -- Best Regards, Charles Charles W. Bailey, Jr., Assistant Dean for Digital Library Planning and Development, University of Houston Libraries E-Mail: cbailey(a)digital-scholarship.com Publications: http://www.digital-scholarship.com/ (Provides access to DigitalKoans, Open Access Bibliography, Open Access Webliography, Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography, Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog, and others)

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Open access to data
by Mailing List Manager 05 May '06

05 May '06

Date: Fri, 5 May 2006 15:05:45 +0530 From: Subbiah Arunachalam <arun(a)mssrf.res.in> >From Peter Suber's blog More on OA to publicly-funded data in the UK Charles Arthur, Should government charge ... and how much? The Guardian, May 4, 2006. Excerpt: A week is a long time in politics. But six years, it seems, is not quite enough time in the civil service to carry out a study into the economic benefits of free data. In the Treasury's Spending Review in 2000, an interesting part discussed the knowledge economy - in particular whether public organisations should charge for their data, and if so, how much. [The report concludes that] some of the data generated is surplus to the running of government; it's simply there to generate profits, to offset the running costs of various departments. "As a result," the authors add, "the government is able, without abusing the dominant position it has in particular markets, to use pricing strategies which enable it to recoup at least some of the fixed costs of production." But that begs an important question that the Free Our Data campaign - which argues that government agencies should provide their data to the public for free - would like to see resolved.... But the authors then admit it's unclear how government-generated data should be priced. After discussing pricing models, they note the suggestion "that demand would grow rapidly in response to lower prices ... and as basic information is repackaged in innovative ways. The issue needs further empirical work." That is, an economist should see whether cheaper data boosts the economy. So, six years on, has the Treasury followed up its own recommendation and done a study on the effect of data pricing? No, the Treasury told us....Perhaps they'll be interested by a new paper produced by the OECD this week examining public sector content, which notes huge disparities in market size and access between the UK, Europe and other countries.

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ISO OKs Open Document Format as Standard
by Farooque Shaheen 05 May '06

05 May '06

Hi all, The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has given its ?sweeping approval? to the OpenDocument Format (ODF) as an international standard for retaining and exchanging digital office documents, according to a press release from the ODF Alliance, a group of entities dedicated to improving the management of electronic government documents. Approval of the OpenDocument Format by ISO marks an important milestone in the effort to help governments solve the very real problem of finding a better way to preserve, access and control their documents now and in the future,? Marcich, said in the release. ?There?s no doubt that this broad vote of support will serve as a springboard for adoption and use of the ODF around the world.? http://www.cio.com/blog_view.html?CID=20823 Thanks & Regards, Farooque Shaheen, Caritor India Pvt Ltd. Tel. 080-26678388 # 4105 Hi all, The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has given its “sweeping approval” to the OpenDocument Format (ODF) as an international standard for retaining and exchanging digital office documents, according to a press release from the ODF Alliance, a group of entities dedicated to improving the management of electronic government documents. Approval of the OpenDocument Format by ISO marks an important milestone in the effort to help governments solve the very real problem of finding a better way to preserve, access and control their documents now and in the future,” Marcich, said in the release. “There’s no doubt that this broad vote of support will serve as a springboard for adoption and use of the ODF around the world.” http://www.cio.com/blog_view.html?CID=20823 Thanks & Regards, Farooque Shaheen, Caritor India Pvt Ltd. Tel. 080-26678388 # 4105

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Workshop on E-Resources and IPR issues 14-16 June 2006
by D Jotwani 05 May '06

05 May '06

Dear All The Central Library, IIT Bombay has planned to organize a 3-days Training Workshop on e-Resources and IPR Issues on 14-16 June 2006. The main objective of the workshop is to expose participants to the relevance of IPR issues vis-a-vis usage of e-resources. Thanks to the success of the Consortia model of acquisition, libraries have been able to provide access to several thousands e-books and journals to their users without the constraints of space and time. While applications of Information and Communication Technologies and Consortia approach have benefited large number of libraries and their users, it has added responsibilities to ensure that the usage is made within the framework of Intellectual Property Rights and the interests of the creators of information/knowledge are protected. Library and information professionals providing e-resources-based information services have important role to play in this area and this workshop will provide them with a broader view of the implications of IPR while discharging their responsibilities and serving their users. The important topics to be covered in the workshop include : Overview of the state of art information communication technologies in the libraries, e-journals, e-books, e-databases Intellectual Property rights vis-a-vis e-resources Vendors presentations RFID Only 30-35 participants, on first-come-first-served basis, will be taken for the course from IITs, IISc, NITs, other engineering colleges, scientific and technical institutions. Preference will be given to those from INDEST/AICTE Consortium participating institutions. Two participants from the consortium participating institutes will be provided free registration. Other participants will be charged Rs 1000-/ as registration fee which includes workshop kit, hostel accommodation, working lunch, and tea/coffee during sessions. TA/DA will have to be borne by the participants or their sponsoring organizations. Participants desiring registration fee concession may kindly submit their application thru parent organization. For more details please visit : http://www.library.iitb.ac.in/news/workshop.pdf D. Jotwani Librarian Indian Institute of Technology Bombay Powai, Mumbai 400076 Phone 91-22-25768920, 91-22-25720227

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Excerpt on India from: The 2006 e-readiness rankings: A white paper from the Economist Intelligence Unit
by Mailing List Manager 05 May '06

05 May '06

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 5 May 2006 10:20:23 +0530 From: Debashish_Ghosh_-_Hindalco_Kolkata_Library/KOL_JD/Hindalco/ABG(a)adityabirla.c om India's heated growth attracts investments from home and abroad Source: http://graphics.eiu.com/files/ad_pdfs/2006Ereadiness_Ranking_WP.pdf India's IT and business process outsourcing industries are among the world's most analysed in recent years. Now, the potential of its local telecoms market is beginning to attract attention. Nearly 50m fixed subscribers and 75m mobile users have created opportunity, and with a population of over 1bn there is enormous potential for growth. The government seems to agree, and it sees the virtue of investment in developing services: a telecoms consultancy, Gartner, estimates that over US$16bn will be invested in 2006, a year-on-year increase of 27%, and it projects this figure to reach US$32bn by 2009. The Department of Telecommunications has set a target of 250m fixed and mobile users by 2007. Such growth potential, combined with its competitiveness in low-cost manufacturing, is attracting foreign investment. If planned handset ventures by such firms as Nokia (Finland) and Elcoteq (Estonia) pan out, foreign direct investment in telecoms equipment manufacturing should reach US$1bn in 2006, according to India's communications minister.

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dlisamu.org
by Mailing List Manager 05 May '06

05 May '06

Date: 5 May 2006 03:50:00 -0000 From: ali raza naqvi <raza10(a)rediffmail.com> Dear colleagues It gives me great pleasure to inform all of you that an independant website of the deptt. of Library and Information Science, AMU was launched on 01.05.2006 by Hon'ble Mr. Naseem Ahmad, Vice-Chancellor, AMU. In his speech as the chief guest of the occasion he appreciated the efforts on the part of the deptt. in recent years and called it as "A FLAGSHIP". He advised the students to indulge in "constructive thinking". The function was presided over by Mr. S.M. Ashraf, Income Tax Commissioner, while Prof. Hamida Ahmad, Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, was the guest of honour. To see the photographs and more details, please visit us on- www.dlisamu.org (the site is still under construction) Prof. Shabahat Husain Chairman Deptt. of Library and Information Science, AMU, Aligarh-202002 (U.P.) INDIA

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Deppt.of Libray & Information Science, AMU Launched websites
by Mailing List Manager 05 May '06

05 May '06

Date: 4 May 2006 13:03:34 -0000 From: akhtar hussain <ahussain2(a)rediffmail.com> Deppt.of Libray & Information Science, AMU, Aligarh Launched departmental website: www.dlisamu.org. For information regarding admission, B Lib,Mlib,M.Phil and PhD programms and other activities about department, please access it. Akhtar Hussain Research Scholar DLIS,AMU,Aligarh-2002002 (U P)

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NCSI Advt for 2006 Batch Trainees
by Nagaraj Vaidya 04 May '06

04 May '06

Dear Members, NCSI REQUIRES Information and Knowledge Management (IKM) TRAINEES No. of positions: 11 [GEN-4, OBC-2, SC-1, ST-1, and Sponsored Candidates-03] Advt. No.R(IB)008-4/2006. Minimum Qualifications: 1. A Bachelor's Degree with at least First Class in any subject followed by a 2 year Post-Graduate degree or recognized equivalent qualification with First class in Education or Management or Library andInformation Science or Journalism or Communication. 2. SC/ST candidates with pass class will also be considered. 3.The sponsored candidates should forward their applications through proper channel. No stipend will be paid to sponsored candidates. Training is for a period of 18 months w.e.f. 01.08.2006 on a stipend of Rs.5,000/- per month (Fixed). Visit our web site at http://www.ncsi.iisc.ernet.in/training/ for details about the training programme and registration of applications ONLINE. The Online Registration form will be accessible from Wednesday, 3rd May 2006 with regards, ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nagaraj N. Vaidya Project Assistant, National Center for Science Information, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore -560 012 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Vacancy for the post of Technical Assistant
by T R B Sarma 04 May '06

04 May '06

Dear Friends, There is a vacancy for the post of Technical Assistant in Institute for Social and Economic Change ( ISEC) Library for a period of six months. The salalry would be Rs. 6000/- per month. Those who have some computer exposure with M.L.I.Sc degree, may come and meet to the undersigned immediately. TRB SARMA Librarian, ISEC Nagarabhavi, Bangalore. 560 072. E-mail : trbsarma(a)isec.ac.in Telephone: 080-23215468 Extn. 302 Dear Friends, There is a vacancy for the post of Technical Assistant in Institute for Social and Economic Change ( ISEC) Library for a period of six months. The salalry would be Rs. 6000/- per month. Those who have some computer exposure with M.L.I.Sc degree, may come and meet to the undersigned immediately. TRB SARMA Librarian, ISEC Nagarabhavi, Bangalore. 560 072. E-mail : mailto:trbsarma@isec.ac.in trbsarma(a)isec.ac.in Telephone: 080-23215468 Extn. 302

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NewPR Wiki
by raja ram 04 May '06

04 May '06

Dear all, Here is a wiki on PR NewPR Wiki http://www.thenewpr.com/wiki/pmwiki.php This wiki is: a repository of relevant information about how the PR practice is changing a collaboration tool for PR professionals and people interested in the practice of public relations an open space where anyone can ask questions, post ideas, or start a project. Regards raj --------------------------------- Yahoo! India Answers: Share what you know. Learn something new. Click here Dear all, Here is a wiki on PR NewPR Wiki http://www.thenewpr.com/wiki/pmwiki.php http://www.thenewpr.com/wiki/pmwiki.php This wiki is: a repository of relevant information about how the PR practice is changing a collaboration tool for PR professionals and people interested in the practice of public relations an open space where anyone can ask questions, post ideas, or start a project. Regards raj Yahoo! India Answers: Share what you know. Learn something new. http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mail/in/mailanswers/*http://in.answers.yahoo.com Click here

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