The Return of Eric Weisstein's World Of Mathematics

Many readers (like this Anonymous Coward) have written with the good news that "Eric Weisstein's World of Mathematics, a free, online encyclopedia of mathematics was taken off the web thanks to a lawsuit by CRC Publishing. After much legal wrangling, it returns today stronger than ever. See it rise from the ashes at http://mathworld.wolfram.com."

Comments

Re:wee bit 'o whoring:

[Spy Hunter]

What a horrible ending! CRC is the big winner here. By threataning to bring a lawsuit they probably wouldn't win they have won all sorts of money and rights to the intellectual "property" contained in MathWorld. This case shows as plain as any I have ever seen the problems with our legal system.

Next time: put the /. effect to good use

[ethereal]

Here's a thought for future story submitters: since any posting of this magnitude will guarantee a rapid /.ing of any posted site, why not make the links point to the bad guys, like CRC in this case? If I'm going to /. some web server and still not read the story (which is mirrored in a post below, BTW, just before I was about to post it), then I'd rather /. a server of some guys who quite clearly Have It Coming, And How.

Congrats to Eric and Wolfram, so sorry to see that you had to give in and settle, but on the other hand maybe you made the right choice in order to get this invaluable resource up on the web again. And now we know that CRC is just as low as Gracenote and other money-grubbing "fencing in the commons" corporate scum.

People talk about "piracy" of intellectual property. Well, guess what: downloading a song from Napster isn't piracy. But using a limited right of publication in print form to destroy an entire online encyclopedia is the very definition of piracy. CRC essentially boarded and scuttled mathworld, and now they're selling it back to the rightful owners a piece at a time. So from now on, when Hilary Rosen blathers about piracy, remember: we know the real pirates by their actions. They are CRC, and Gracenote, and any other company that takes a publicly-generated free resource and tries to coopt that resource for their sole gain. It's a valuable lesson: it takes real money and a corporate seal to be a true pirate these days.

Not Really usefull in the New Form

[NateTG]

I think an alternative to MathWorld is called for. There are some serious problems with the current one:

• It appears from Weisstein's story that CRC has "retroactive" copyrights to the site. When they publish a part of the site, they get copyrights for it?
  
• Any contributers must sign CRC's boilerplate copyright agreement. Since CRC has already demonstrated some serious misbehavior, it's a quite sinister notion. Personally I'm quite reluctant to give them rights to anything I have written. It probably also precludes contributing the same material to other locations.
  

Boycott Not Companies But Individuals...

[toupsie]

It appears that one of the main problems that Eric Weisstein had during his ordeal were people that just didn't care and only had a profit motive in mind. Not only should you boycott this company but the individuals that were involved in the mess. A blacklist of corrupted individuals that an someone can reference before making a deal would be a lifesaver for so many. I am sure as hell never going to have any publishing relationship with Bob Stern or company that employees him.

We must remember that its not companies that ultimately screw with us, its people. Once people realize they cannot hide behind the corporate curtain, they will start acting more responsible. Granted, reading a contract is incredibly important but supplying a devious contract and calling its "normal, standard and harmless" is pure evil for an editor to do and unethical to the maximum. Rot in hell, Mr. Stern, you're name has been added to the list.