K12 Open Source

Interactions, March/April 08

1.1: Purpose and Scope In order for electronic-book technology to achieve widespread success in the marketplace, Reading Systems need to have convenient access to a large number and variety of titles. The Open Publication Structure (OPS) Specification describes a standard for representing the content of electronic publications. Specifically: * The specification is intended to give content providers (e.g. publishers, authors, and others who have content to be displayed) and publication tool providers, minimal and common guidelines that ensure fidelity, accuracy, accessibility, and adequate presentation of electronic content over various Reading Systems. * The specification seeks to reflect established content format standards. * The goal of this specification is to define a standard means of content description for use by purveyors of electronic books (publishers, agents, authors et al.) allowing such content to be provided to multiple Reading Systems and to insure maximum presentational equivalence across Reading Systems.

Creative Commons est l'un des acteurs les plus visibles du mouvement copyleft. L'appréhension de ces licences libres nécessite une relecture des paradigmes classiques de la propriété littéraire. La présente étude propose une mise en contexte des licences Creative Commons sur le plan de la théorie du droit. Nous proposons en annexe n nouveau dossier, consacré à la licence Creative Commons, qui est sans nul doute l'un des acteurs les plus visibles du mouvement dit du copyleft. L'appréhension de ces licences libres nécessite une relecture des paradigmes classiques de la propriété littéraire. La présente étude propose une mise en contexte des licences Creative Commons sur le plan de la théorie du droit.

Der Bund hat einen 42-Millionen-Auftrag an Microsoft vergeben. Konkurrenten von Microsoft sehen sich vom Wettbewerb ausgeschlossen. In der Tat ist der Auftrag nicht öffentlich ausgeschrieben worden. Nun droht eine Beschwerde an das Bundesverwaltungsgericht.

The DAISY Pipeline is a liberally licensed open source framework for document- and DTB-related pipelined transformations. The DAISY Pipeline is a project of the DAISY Consortium - creating a better way to publish and a better way to read, for everyone, everywhere.

Ursula K. Le Guin, the science fiction writer, was perusing the Web site Scribd last month when she came across digital copies of some books that seemed quite familiar to her. No wonder. She wrote them, including a free-for-the-taking copy of one of her most enduring novels, "The Left Hand of Darkness."

When it comes to digitizing books and offering readers and writers a business model, Google has planted the wheat, harvested it, threshed it, ground it, and baked it. Now Microsoft, Amazon, and Yahoo think they each deserve a big slice of bread. They are taking the hen to court in order to get it. The effort, led by attorney Gary Reback, to challenge Google's deals with writers and publishers for digitizing "orphaned works" that are copyrighted but no longer published is less lawsuit than business by another name.

Maximum Prophet recommends a NY Times piece on the growing phenomenon of unauthorized digital versions of copyrighted books showing up online. The problem has been growing exponentially, fed in part by the popularity of reading devices such as the Kindle and the iPhone. The article features the odd photographic juxtaposition of Cory Doctorow and Ursula K. Le Guin, who take opposite views on electronic editions, authorized or not. Ms. Le Guin: "I thought, who do these people think they are? Why do they think they can violate my copyright and get away with it?" Mr. Doctorow: "I really feel like my problem isn't piracy. It's obscurity."

A landmark study by the Institute of European Media Law (EML) found that a levy on internet usage legalising non-commercial online exchanges of creative works conforms with German and European copyright law, even though it requires changes in both. The German and European factions of the Green Party who had commissioned the study will make the "culture flat-rate," as the model is being called in Germany, an issue in their policies. The global debate on a new social contract between creatives and society is getting more pronounced by the day. Two models are emerging: a free-market approach based on private blanket licences and voluntary subscriptions, and a legal licence approach based on exceptions in copyright law and mandatory levies, that now has been proven legally feasible and appropriate by the EML study.

"As presently drafted, the Proposed Settlement does not meet the legal standards this Court must apply," the DOJ said in a 32-page filing (click for PDF) with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. "This Court should reject the Proposed Settlement in its current form and encourage the parties to continue negotiations to modify it so as to comply with Rule 23 (a federal law governing class-action settlements) and the copyright and antitrust laws."

Beim Gespräch ging es mir vor allem um die Möglichkeiten, die nicht kommerzielle Unternehmen wie Blogger usw. betreffend der Gebührenabgaben haben. Immer mehr Schweizer Musikgruppen möchten beim kulturtv.ch mitmachen. Doch wenn sie bei der SUISA angemeldet sind, ist bei mir die Türe leider zu. Das wird allgemein nicht verstanden. Poto Wegener hat meine Fragen alle aus der Sicht der SUISA beantwortet. Damit ist die rechtliche Situation klar, nicht aber die Zukunft.

The Swiss government agency for Building and Logistics (BBL) has signed a software licence agreement with Microsoft worth 42 million CHF (about 27,8 million euro) without a request for tender, the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung reported on Tuesday.

In today's Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) there is a elaborated report on the questionable procurement of a 42 million CHF contract with Microsoft (publication in the Schweizerischen Handelsblatt SHAB).

Amazon has announced that it will give authors and publishers the ability to disable the text-to-speech function on any or all of their e-books available for the Kindle 2. The Reading Rights Coalition, which represents people who cannot read print, will protest the threatened removal of the text-to-speech function from e-books for the Amazon Kindle 2 outside the Authors Guild headquarters in New York City at 31 East 32nd

An introduction to creative commons for children

To pay so much attention to Bill Gates' retirement is missing the point. What really matters is not Gates, nor Microsoft, but the unethical system of restrictions that Microsoft, like many other software companies, imposes on its customers.