Project Gutenberg [gutenberg.org] has the complete works of Shakespeare [gutenberg.org] online, a text in the public domain that anyone can print. Yet thousands of print copies of these works are sold through bookstores every month.
This is indeed true as of now, because many DO see some value in having a printed copy of Shakespeare (myself included).
Think of a different scenario.
You have two buttons on your Kindle. One buys a copy of The Tempest from Amazon or iBooks, for 2$. The other button downloads The Tempest from Gutemberg - for free.
Assuming that you don't own Amazon stock, and that everything else is equal (format, download speed, etc.), which button would you press?
Any work put on a Creative Commons license today, won't make any money in the future, once digital is king. As publishers want to make money, I believe this model, while interesting, can't take off.
We desperately need a realistic, viable business model, rethought from the ground up, that faces the digital distribution reality - and that at the same time avoids the publishing industry to fall in the same trap as the music industry.
Unfortunately, I have not seen such model just yet.
Context is the big problem in search. The time sensitivity is one context. Product attributes is another. You can't (with the partial exception of Newegg and similar searches) search item properties in most cases. If you're buying a set of headphones not all headphones list their specs nor in the same way. There are a lot of other products besides headphones.
There's a third option, between losing your soul and forgoing the money. The option is: get the money, run, and start a new business.
Of course, whether or not it is a viable option, depends on a number of factors, including:
1. Are you able to negotiate with Megacorp a deal that does not tie you to them until 2025? 2. Are you developing the next PageRank? (PageRanks ideas come once in a decade, and if that is your thing, you don't want to sell. In that case, though, you will be able to raise money without losing control. In 1998, Bechtolsheim wrote a check to "Google Inc", for $100.000, prior to the company even being founded.) 3. How much time/ effort you've used so far to develop your idea. 4. How good you are with Powepoint. If you speak binary but can't sell yourself properly, then being under the wings of a Megacorp may be the only option to survive and keep doing what you are best at.
But the concept itself suffers a major limitation: any pressurized, pneumatic-based approach will consume too much power to be eligible for a portable device - where battery life is usually key.
Senators are elected as individuals, by the people of their state , and shall only be responsible in front of them - not in front of their party.
Party switching in the US has noble history: in fact, the parties as we know them today, are largely a result of historical switchings. (Weren't this the case, there would be no point in having a Senate. We would just have two parties, each weighted according to the votes.)
Historically, there have been examples of "strong parties" of this kind, but those are not the ones you would want to take as a model. Independent voting of each elected official, and ultimately party switching, is at the very core of the Democracy.
Said this, of course one could also switch party because it's a cheap way to get elected, but this is another story.
... but you don't want to burn the only existing master of such porn films.
(Seriously, believe it or not, early porn movies of the 20's are a prized source of historical documentation. And with good reason: they tell a lot about their time.)
Isn't anybody going to move a finger, while a significant part of our collective history disappears forever?
I really don't think anyone should be allowed to simply pull the plug, no matter what TOS say.
If I buy the Colosseum and then decide to blow it up "because it's mine", I bet I'd be stopped by someone, rightly so.
As a historian of year 2075, I'd really want to have access to Geocities if I am researching the '90s.
It happened at least once before. In the 50's and early 60's, video storage technology was expensive, and most video documentation was not not considered to be of any 'historical value'. As a result, most of it was just erased and we have lost forever an incredible source of information on that period.
Is there a productive way to scream? A petition of some kind? An attorney to be addressed?
Mod parent up, pls.
I often wonder how it is possible for a clever crowd like the one in/. to indulge in naif "libertarian" stances like "government does not make a damn thing".
But then I consider the list of scientists who joined the Nazi party, and I come to realize that social and political intelligence is just one form of intelligence, that does not always necessarily come together with the others.
It seems not to be doing what you may think.
The page explains how to exclude sites from a Customized Search Engine, which is a hosted thing and not your ordinary search.
(of course you can still have the feature if you build a CSE and host it on your slackware box, if you care enough and are nerd enough)
Slashdot Mirror
Project Gutenberg [gutenberg.org] has the complete works of Shakespeare [gutenberg.org] online, a text in the public domain that anyone can print. Yet thousands of print copies of these works are sold through bookstores every month.
This is indeed true as of now, because many DO see some value in having a printed copy of Shakespeare (myself included).
Think of a different scenario.
You have two buttons on your Kindle. One buys a copy of The Tempest from Amazon or iBooks, for 2$. The other button downloads The Tempest from Gutemberg - for free.
Assuming that you don't own Amazon stock, and that everything else is equal (format, download speed, etc.), which button would you press?
Any work put on a Creative Commons license today, won't make any money in the future, once digital is king.
As publishers want to make money, I believe this model, while interesting, can't take off.
We desperately need a realistic, viable business model, rethought from the ground up, that faces the digital distribution reality - and that at the same time avoids the publishing industry to fall in the same trap as the music industry.
Unfortunately, I have not seen such model just yet.
Context is the big problem in search. The time sensitivity is one context. Product attributes is another. You can't (with the partial exception of Newegg and similar searches) search item properties in most cases. If you're buying a set of headphones not all headphones list their specs nor in the same way. There are a lot of other products besides headphones.
Semantic Web
There's a third option, between losing your soul and forgoing the money.
The option is: get the money, run, and start a new business.
Of course, whether or not it is a viable option, depends on a number of factors, including:
1. Are you able to negotiate with Megacorp a deal that does not tie you to them until 2025?
2. Are you developing the next PageRank? (PageRanks ideas come once in a decade, and if that is your thing, you don't want to sell. In that case, though, you will be able to raise money without losing control. In 1998, Bechtolsheim wrote a check to "Google Inc", for $100.000, prior to the company even being founded.)
3. How much time/ effort you've used so far to develop your idea.
4. How good you are with Powepoint. If you speak binary but can't sell yourself properly, then being under the wings of a Megacorp may be the only option to survive and keep doing what you are best at.
...and then there was that other movie where a respected Senator babbles about techie stuff.
You know, the net and a series of tubes.
What movie was that, again? Ah, wait...
It's just a proof of concept, ok.
But the concept itself suffers a major limitation: any pressurized, pneumatic-based approach will consume too much power to be eligible for a portable device - where battery life is usually key.
Not coming to your iPhone anytinme soon.
Senators are elected as individuals, by the people of their state , and shall only be responsible in front of them - not in front of their party.
Party switching in the US has noble history: in fact, the parties as we know them today, are largely a result of historical switchings. (Weren't this the case, there would be no point in having a Senate. We would just have two parties, each weighted according to the votes.)
Historically, there have been examples of "strong parties" of this kind, but those are not the ones you would want to take as a model. Independent voting of each elected official, and ultimately party switching, is at the very core of the Democracy.
Said this, of course one could also switch party because it's a cheap way to get elected, but this is another story.
... but you don't want to burn the only existing master of such porn films.
(Seriously, believe it or not, early porn movies of the 20's are a prized source of historical documentation. And with good reason: they tell a lot about their time.)
Isn't anybody going to move a finger, while a significant part of our collective history disappears forever?
I really don't think anyone should be allowed to simply pull the plug, no matter what TOS say.
If I buy the Colosseum and then decide to blow it up "because it's mine", I bet I'd be stopped by someone, rightly so.
As a historian of year 2075, I'd really want to have access to Geocities if I am researching the '90s.
It happened at least once before. In the 50's and early 60's, video storage technology was expensive, and most video documentation was not not considered to be of any 'historical value'. As a result, most of it was just erased and we have lost forever an incredible source of information on that period.
Is there a productive way to scream? A petition of some kind? An attorney to be addressed?
Project "forge.mil" is only to be found at the url http://www.disa.mil/forge/
The address forge.mil is unavailable as of now.
Either does not exist, or has been taken over by the Chinese/Russians, or it has been slashdotted, or it runs on Windows.
Any of the above, is not a good sign.
Mod parent up, pls. I often wonder how it is possible for a clever crowd like the one in /. to indulge in naif "libertarian" stances like "government does not make a damn thing".
But then I consider the list of scientists who joined the Nazi party, and I come to realize that social and political intelligence is just one form of intelligence, that does not always necessarily come together with the others.
After a bit of searching I found this.
It seems not to be doing what you may think. The page explains how to exclude sites from a Customized Search Engine, which is a hosted thing and not your ordinary search. (of course you can still have the feature if you build a CSE and host it on your slackware box, if you care enough and are nerd enough)
actually, it IS so. http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/20/1544257