GWeekly_October_27.txt *The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, October 27, 2004 PT1* *******eBooks Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since July 4, 1971******* Will Project Gutenberg be "Gone With The Wind?" It would appear Project Gutenberg is under attack by the Stephens Mitchell estate for Project Gutenberg of Australia's publication of Gone With The Wind. If you would care to comment, or have any media or legal connections you would like to make available to fight this, please let us know. Newsletter editors needed! Please email hart@pobox.com or gbnewby@pglaf.org Anyone who would care to get advance editions: please email hart@pobox.com Please note we have new titles this week from: Diderot Shakespeare Descartes TABLE OF CONTENTS [Search for "*eBook" or "*Intro". . .to jump to that section, etc.] *eBook Milestones *Introduction *Hot Requests New Sites and Announcements *Continuing Requests and Announcements *Progress Report, including Distributed Proofreaders *Permanent Requests For Assistance: *Donation Information *Access To The Project Gutenberg Collections *Mirror Site Information *Instant Access To Our Latest eBooks *Have We Given Away A Trillion Yet? *Flashback *Weekly eBook update: This is now in PT2 of the Weekly Newsletter Also collected in the Monthly Newsletter Corrections in separate section 1 New From PG Australia [Australian, Canadian Copyright Etc.] 68 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright *Headline News from NewsScan and Edupage *Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists *** *eBook Milestones 11,163 New eBooks Since The Start Of 2001 We Have Now Produced about 3,318 eBooks In 2004 We Are Already ~1/4 of the Way from 14,000 to 15,000 14,225 eBooks As Of Today!!! 775 to go to 15,000!!! 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That's the 9.75 months of 2004 as Compared to ~31 years!!! *Headline News from NewsScan and Edupage [PG Editor's Comments In Brackets]

From NewsScan:

DESCENT FROM PRIVACY: A 'SLIPPERY SLOPE' Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum, warns: "Most consumers don't fully understand the tradeoffs they're making with privacy." As an example, she argues that the potential widespread use of the VeriChip -- a tiny radio transmitter inserted under a person's skin -- is "a nightmare situation" for privacy, because at first workers might be induced to wear the devices simply to get high-security jobs but that eventually the transmitters would be much more broadly required: "All of a sudden it becomes mandatory for certain classes of people. I just see this as an extremely slippery slope."(Christian Science Monitor 21 Oct 2004) <http://www.christiansciencemonitor.com/2004/1021/p13s01-stct.html> [and in a related story] U.S. PASSPORTS GET CHIPPED [If crooks read your passport, they will know when you are not at home.] Beginning in January, diplomats and U.S. State Department employees will be issued passports containing embedded RFID chips that will contain the individual's name, address, date and place of birth, and a digital photo. Ordinary citizens applying for new passports will get the high-tech version starting in the spring. Civil liberties advocates have called the new passports a "privacy horror," and point out that even if the data were encrypted (and it's not), it would still be very easy to steal. "If 180 countries have access to the technology for reading this thing, whether or not it is encrypted, from a security standpoint, that is a very leaky system," says Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Lee Tien. "Strictly from a technology standpoint, any reader system, even with security, that was so widely deployed and accessible to so many people worldwide will be subject to some very interesting compromises." Meanwhile, a travel privacy expert says that in addition to identity thieves, commercial travel companies, including hotels, will capture the data when people check in or exchange currency. Intel RFID expert Roy Want says those fears are overblown, but acknowledges some theft is possible: "In principle someone could rig up a reader, perhaps in a doorway you are forcing people to go through. You could read some of these tags some of the time." (Wired.com 21 Oct 2004) <http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,65412,00.html> ROBOT USE TO SURGE BY 2007 The use of robots to perform household tasks such as lawn-mowing, vacuuming, guard duty and other chores is slated to increase sevenfold by 2007, according to the U.N.'s latest World Robotics Survey. The report says 607,000 automated domestic helpers are in use now, two thirds of them purchased last year. Most of them -- 570,000 -- are robot vacuum cleaners, and 37,000 of them are robotic lawn-mowers. While the report predicts that vacuum cleaners will continue to hold the lead, sales of window-washing and pool-cleaning robots are expected to take off. Meanwhile, sales of robotic companions, like Sony's Aibo dog, are also expanding, with some 692,000 "entertainment robots" around the world. Japan remains home to about half of the current 800,000 industrial robots, which are used primarily on automobile assembly lines, but Europe and North America are catching up. And "service robots" are branching out, performing such tasks as milking cows, handling toxic waste, transporting medicine around hospitals and assisting surgeons. By the end of this decade, robots will "also assist old and handicapped people with sophisticated interactive equipment, carry out surgery, inspect pipes and sites that are hazardous to people, fight fire and bombs," says the report. (AP 21 Oct 2004) <http://apnews.excite.com/article/20041021/D85RQCJ82.html> MUSIC INDUSTRY ON THE WRONG COURSE Wharton business professor Joel Waldfogel says the music industry is mistakenly pursuing a short-term strategy in backing the Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act of 2004, which would hold liable any entity that "intentionally aids, abets, induces or procures" copyrighted material. Rather than fighting technological advances through litigation, the music industry must come up with new business models -- for instance, taking advantage of the Internet to slash its distribution costs. "Instead of putting out CDs and shipping them on trucks, they can send them directly at a very low cost. That does suggest a very different business model than charging $15 or $20 for a CD. It might be a much more attractive way to do things. Stuff that is easy to distribute wants to be free. Given that force, I think [the recording industry] needs to come up with a new model for generating income," says Waldfogel. (Knowledge@Wharton Oct 20-Nov 2 2004) http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=viewArticle&id=1066 ADVERTISERS TRACK RADIO LISTENING HABITS In 14 locations around the Washington area, a company called MobilTrak has installed sensing devices on utility poles that pick up the electronic signals from cars' antennas as they speed by and record which station they're listening to. The monitoring process gives businesses a welcome insight into the listening habits of their target audience and helps them decide how to allocate their advertising budget, says MobilTrak managing partner C. David Boice: "It's all about precision marketing. It's about giving marketers real-time data about what's happening in certain areas at certain times so they don't waste their advertising dollars." The most enthusiastic adopters have been car dealerships, who generally believe that 80% of their business comes from people who live or work within 10 miles of their location. One dealer found that the two stations he'd been investing in -- a talk-personality station and a contemporary music station -- didn't even rank in the top 10 for in-car radio listeners driving by his dealership. "It was a real eye-opener," he says. Currently, MobilTrak picks up only FM signals, but the company says it plans to introduce technology that picks up AM and satellite station signals next spring. (Washington Post 25 Oct 2004) <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60013-2004Oct24.html> CYBERSECURITY LARGELY IGNORED BY INDIVIDUAL USERS A new study by America Online and the National Cyber Security Alliance indicates that about 80% of home PCs are infected with spyware, but most users aren't even aware of it. And while 85% of users had installed antivirus software, two-thirds of those had not updated it in the past week. In addition, about 20% had an active virus on their machines and two-thirds did not have a firewall installed. AOL chief trust officer Tatiana Gau says the results highlight just how vulnerable the average online user is to malicious hackers. "No consumer would walk down the street waving a stack of cash or leave their wallet sitting in a public place, but far too many are doing the exact same thing online. Without basic protections like antivirus, spyware and firewall software, consumers are leaving their personal and financial information at risk." (CNet News.com 24 Oct 2004) <http://news.com.com/Plague+carriers+Most+users+unaware+of+PC+infections/210 0-1029_3-5423306.html> [More below on this one] 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 NewsScan@NewsScan.com Html version: Send mail to NewsScan-html@NewsScan.com NewsScan-To-Go: http://www.newsscan.com/handheld/current.html *

From Edupage

SPYWARE RAMPANT, USERS UNAWARE Results of a recent study highlight the lack of awareness among a wide majority of home computer users about malicious code and the tools they could use to protect their computers against it. The study was carried out by America Online and the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), which is promoting October as National Cyber Security Awareness Month. Technicians from AOL and NCSA went to the homes of more than 300 computer users and inspected their systems. Among the study's more alarming findings were that 80 percent of home computers are currently infected with spyware and that 90 percent of users with infected machines were completely unaware of the infection. Authors of the report's findings also noted that close to 60 percent of home users do not know the difference between a firewall and antivirus software and that two-thirds of users do not have a firewall installed. Although 85 percent of users had antivirus software installed on their computers, only one-third had updated it within the previous week. Of the computers studied, 20 percent had active viruses. CNET, 25 October 2004 http://news.com.com/2100-1029_3-5423306.html JUDGE ISSUES RESTRAINING ORDER ON SPYWARE A federal judge has issued a restraining order against notorious spammer Stanford Wallace, forcing him to disable spyware programs that secretly track users' actions and flood their computers with pop-up ads. Wallace, who in the 1990s headed one of the most prolific spamming companies, is the target of the first action taken by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) against spyware purveyors. The FTC also alleges that Wallace sold consumers bogus tools that supposedly detect and remove spyware. Wallace's attorney said his client wants to use the Internet in "lawful and proper ways" and "looks forward to an opportunity to establish exactly what advertising practices are allowable." Laura Sullivan, attorney for the FTC, described the judge's order as "relief for consumers" while the case is being resolved. A hearing in the case has been scheduled for November 9. San Jose Mercury News, 25 October 2004 http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/10010269.htm IBM TO ISSUE SECURITY ALERTS IBM will begin releasing monthly security reports called the Global Business Security Index to give corporate customers a snapshot of current threats to computer networks. The reports will be based on data collected from 2,700 IBM employees and about 500,000 sensors in 34 countries. The sensors are applications that monitor attacks and attempted attacks against networks. The new reports will be part of IBM's Security Threats and Attack Trends service, which is available for about $10,000 a month and resembles the DeepSight Threat Management System offered by Symantec. Analysts said such tools are valuable for network administrators to anticipate threats and minimize the damage they cause. Observers noted, however, that the computer security industry is locked in a cycle of announcing vulnerabilities and then working frantically to patch them before hackers exploit them. New York Times, 25 October 2004 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/25/technology/25ibm.html 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: edupage@educause.edu To SUBSCRIBE to Edupage, send a message to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU and in the body of the message type: SUBSCRIBE Edupage YourFirstName YourLastName *** *Headline News Avoided By Most Of The Major U.S. Media DISNEY AND VIACOM: HUGE FINES FOR TOO MUCH ADVERTIZING Only the more independent media are reporting that Disney, the world's second largest media company, has been fined a whopping half million dollars for placing more advertizing than is legal in their programming. In addition, Viacom-- the multimedia empire--has been fined a million dollars to also penalize them for this illegal behavior. Even in these days of rampant deregulation, there is still a law against saturating programs with advertizing and the "product placement" of advertizing items within programs-- and both Disney and Viacom were nabbed by the FCC--Federal Communications Commission for these violations, but you do not hear much about this on the major media who are in bed with these two media giants through various deals. A news report literally half way around the world reported this. The laws prohibit advertizing in excess of 20% of showtime [slightly different on weekdays than weekends], but it was broken some 600 times last year in this case, and some 145 product placement violations were cited in this period, in which products related to the programs were illegally sold in the programs' advertizing slots. The vast majority [85 million] of U.S. households received these programs last year, in which various programs of ABC and Disney were cited for these violations. [Note, most or all of these laws are designed to protect a viewer of age 12 or under from more than 20% saturation of advertizing per hour of television. Apparently adults are expected to fend for themselves, as they get saturated for approximately 1/3 of each hour with advertizing. If there is anything you can forward on this, please do.] [In related stories from various stock exchanges, it would appear Disney is not doing well, with European stock price falling dramatically, and the selling off of the 333 store Disney chain of retail outlets. Disney investors are also suing Disney a couple million dollars for paying off their former Disney President, Michael Ovitz, to the tune of $77 million dollars, apparently including such personages as a former U.S. Senate member, and a famous Oscar winner, in a legal process that could apparently be taught in textbooks for the next few centuries. The details are still sketchy but apparently there was a total of $140 million involved, as severance pay for Mr. Ovitz, perhaps only half of which is involved in this case. Ovitz barely lasted one year as Disney President, and due to the manner in which he left a severance package is being challenged as inappropriate. A quick look indicates he was hired 9 years ago, so why have the lawsuits only come up now? In another point, it would appear that the Disney corporation would get to keep funds and interest returned under this lawsuit, not investors.] Law pundits predict that this case will drive up the price of executive salaries paid up front, as this case seems to have poked a serious hold in the Golden Parachute idea. *ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK THE HUMAN GENOME IS SHRINKING Recent estimates over the years of how many genes it takes to actually build a human being are shrinking. Remember a while back when they talked about millions of genes. . . . Now they think it really only takes just over 20,000. . .! It turns out most of the human genome doesn't do very much. INDEX FINGERS POINT THE WAY FOR MALE SCIENTISTS from The Scotsman Male scientists are good at research because they have higher-than-average levels of the female hormone oestrogen which aids analytical skills, a study on Bath University academics today revealed. The survey found that male scientists tended to have longer index fingers than other men, indicating high levels of oestrogen present in their bodies. Men studied had levels of oestrogen as high as their testosterone levels, which caused the right side of their brains responsible for spatial and analytical skills, to develop more strongly. http://snipurl.com/9yf2 *STRANGE QUOTE OF THE WEEK *PREDICTION OF THE WEEK *Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists For more information about the Project Gutenberg's mailing lists, including the Project Gutenberg Weekly and Monthly Newsletters: and the other Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists: The weekly is sent on Wednesdays, and the monthly is sent on the first Wednesday of the month. To subscribe to any (or to unsubscribe or adjust your subscription preferences), visit the Project Gutenberg mailing list server: http://lists.pglaf.org If you are having trouble with your subscription, please email the list's human administrators at: help@pglaf.org ***