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"Open access to 584,546 e-prints in Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Quantitative Biology, Quantitative Finance and Statistics Subject search and browse: 21 Jan 2010: Collaborative support plan announced 8 Apr 2009: Added public author identifiers, Facebook interaction, myarticles widget, and personal Atom feeds See cumulative "What's New" pages Robots Beware: indiscriminate automated downloads from this site are not permitted"

"...If rights remain as tightly controlled and as expensive as they are now, nonfiction will be the province of the entirely new or the overly familiar. Dazzling books with newly created art, text and multimedia will far outnumber works filled with historical materials. Only a few well-heeled companies will have the wherewithal to create gee-whiz multimedia book-like products that require permissions, and these projects will most likely focus on highly popular subjects. History's outsiders and untold stories will be left behind. We treat copyrights as individual possessions, jewels that exist entirely by themselves. I'm obviously sympathetic to that point of view. But source material also takes on another life when it's repurposed. It becomes part of the flow, the narration, the interweaving of text and art in books and e-books. It's essential that we take this into account as we re-imagine permissions in a digital age. When we have a new model for permissions, we will have new media. Then all of us - authors, readers, new-media innovators, rights holders - will really see the stories that words and images can tell. "

Doctorow's summary in his newsletter: "My latest Locus column, "Special Pleading," talks about the damned-if-you-do/ damned-if-you-don't nature of free ebook scepticism. When I started out giving away my print novels as free ebooks, critics charged that it only worked because I was so obscure that I needed the exposure. Now that I've had a book on the NYT bestseller list, a new gang of critics claim my strategy only works so well because I'm established and can afford to lose sales to free ebooks. The arguing tactic is called "special pleading," and it's a dirty rhetorical trick indeed!"

"The oldest Koran translation The oldest Koran translation preserved dates from 1143. At the request of Peter the Venerable, abbot of Cluny, it was prepared in Toledo by the polyglot British scholar Robert of Ketton (Robertus Ketenensius, mistakenly referred to as Robertus Retenensis or Robert of Chester). He was assisted by a native Arabic speaker. Several manuscripts reflect the significance of this Latin translation for Western involvement with Islam. Exactly four centuries after the translation originated, it was prepared for publication by the Zurich theologian Theodor Bibliander. In 1543, after fierce debate and mediation on the part of Martin Luther, it was issued by the famous Basle publishing house of Johannes Oporinus. The huge demand for this work led to a second printing seven years later. "