March 2000

Stop harassing Librarians

Amnesty International released a report today entitled \”Cuba: Short Term Detention and Harassment of Dissidents.\” The 24-page report notes that \”freedom of expression, association and assembly are severely limited in law and in practice\” for Cuban citizens. \”Those who attempt to express views, organize meetings or form organizations that conflict with government policy are frequently subjected to punitive measures.\” Independent librarians are listed among the groups of Cuban citizens whom Amnesty says have been subject to intensified repression in recent months.

Amnesty International released a report today entitled \”Cuba: Short Term Detention and Harassment of Dissidents.\” The 24-page report notes that \”freedom of expression, association and assembly are severely limited in law and in practice\” for Cuban citizens. \”Those who attempt to express views, organize meetings or form organizations that conflict with government policy are frequently subjected to punitive measures.\” Independent librarians are listed among the groups of Cuban citizens whom Amnesty says have been subject to intensified repression in recent months.Focusing on 13 methods of intimidation, the
world-renowned human rights organization expressed
concern because \”certain punitive measures used by the
Cuban Government to stifle dissent are becoming more
frequent, including short term detentions,
interrogations, summonses, official warnings, threats,
intimidation, eviction, loss of employment, restrictions
on travel, house searches, house arrests, telephone
buggings and physical and verbal acts of aggression….\”
Some of the physical attacks, according to Amnesty, are
carried out by paramilitary groups known as \”Rapid
Response Brigades,\” organized by the government in 1991
with the avowed goal of \”confronting and liquidating any
sign of counter-revolution or crime….\”


Amnesty International cites particular incidents to
illustrate each of the 13 categories of repression
outlined in the new report. Under \”mass detentions,\”
for example, the report describes the case of an activist
for the blind, Ms. Milagros Cruz Cano, who was among a
group of people attacked and arrested on November 27,
1999, while demonstrating outside a courtroom where an
independent journalist was being tried.
This nonviolent
protest was disrupted when \”Rapid Response Brigades,
State Security agents and police came to the scene and
began to beat the demonstators with clubs…. [On
December 4] Milagros Cruz Cano, who is blind, was
re-detained by State Security officials…. She was
initially held at the Maria Luisa police station in
Havana where she was reportedly beaten by police officers
which resulted in a swollen cheek and a bruise and a
scab below her eye. She was then transferred to Mazorra
psychiatric hospital in Havana where she was held in an
isolated cell….\” After being subjected to further
mistreatment, Ms. Cruz Canos was released without charge
on December 14. Incidents involving Cuba\’s independent
librarians are included in the Amnesty report to
illustrate two of the 13 categories of heightened
repression being used by the security forces. Under the
category of \”house searches,\” the report notes that
\”Independent libraries in Cuba have also been subjected
to searches and the confiscation of books. The first
independent library in Cuba, the \’Biblioteca Felix
Varela,\’ was established in April 1998 by Berta Mexidor
Vazquez and her husband, Ramon Humberto Colas Castillo.
Since then several other independent libraries have
emerged. However, most have reportedly been subjected
to searches and the confiscation of books and
magazines.\” Under the category of \”evictions,\” the
report describes the forced expulsion of Ramon Colas,
Berta Mexidor and their two children from their home in
the town of Las Tunas, which also served as the site of
the Felix Varela Library. Amnesty describes how the
family \”had lived in their home for 13 years before
being told they were illegal occupants. According to
Berta Mexidor, the authorities removed all their
belongings into lorries in spite of their protests and
told them they were being moved to another area, some 60
kilometers from their home. They were taken to a
military camp where some 300 other people were reportedly
housed.\” In an earlier report issued in November, 1999,
Amnesty had named Ramon Colas as a Prisoner of
Conscience following his arrest during the incident
described above.

Comments on the repression of the independent
librarians and other members of Cuba\’s emerging
civil society, as outlined in Amnesty\’s report, may be
sent to: President Fidel Castro, Consejos de Ministros y
del Estado, Havana, Cuba. E-mail may be sent to Cuba\’s
official librarians\’ association, known as ASCUBI, at:
([email protected]).


BACKGROUND: More than 33 independent libraries now
exist in Cuba with the goal of offering uncensored
reading materials to the Cuban people. These popular
institutions have been welcomed in a nation where strict
censorship has prevailed for many years. Because of
their efforts to promote intellectual freedom, the
independent librarians are being subjected to a campaign
of persecution. The full text of a report on this
subject by the International Federation of Library
Associations (IFLA) is on the Internet
(http://www.faife.dk, in the \”news and events\” section).
In news too late to be included in Amnesty\’s report, the
Felix Varela Library continued to operate in Las Tunas
until February, 2000, when the entire collection of over
1,000 volumes was stolen, allegedly by burglars. For
details on this incident, please refer to the Friends of
Cuban Libraries news bulletin dated March 9, 2000.


The Friends of Cuban Libraries, founded in June,
1999, is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit
support group for Cuba\’s independent librarians. We
oppose censorship and all other violations of
intellectual freedom, as defined by the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, regardless of whatever
administration may be in office in Cuba. We are funded
entirely by our members and do not seek or accept
contributions from other sources. For further information

about the Friends, send e-mail to:

[email protected] or telephone (U.S.) 718-340-8494.

Mailing address: Robert Kent, 474 48th Ave., #3-C, Long
Island City, NY 11109 USA. ###

New Library Idea Bank

The Consortium for public library networking EARL\’s New Library Ideas Bank is our forum for discussion and information about the development of New Library content. On these pages you will find a mini-gateway of useful links to help you with the whole process of electronic content creation, an Ideas Xchange space where you can share your thoughts and some terrific examples that will inspire you
Check out The Ideabank Web Site for more.

The Consortium for public library networking EARL\’s New Library Ideas Bank is our forum for discussion and information about the development of New Library content. On these pages you will find a mini-gateway of useful links to help you with the whole process of electronic content creation, an Ideas Xchange space where you can share your thoughts and some terrific examples that will inspire you
Check out The Ideabank Web Site for more.Links – http://www.earl.org.uk/ideabank/links.html

Ideas Exchange – http://www.earl.org.uk/ideabank/xchange/index.html

Examples – http://www.earl.org.uk/ideabank/inspire.html

Paper and EBooks

Publishersweekly has an intersting story on E-Boos.
With more than 130 of its titles available as downloadable electronic editions, St. Martin\’s Press plans to release many more of its titles simultaneously in print and electronic editions. This could be the new standard for publishers.
They are already saying Cryptography Is an Urgent Need.

Publishersweekly has an intersting story on E-Boos.
With more than 130 of its titles available as downloadable electronic editions, St. Martin\’s Press plans to release many more of its titles simultaneously in print and electronic editions. This could be the new standard for publishers.
They are already saying Cryptography Is an Urgent Need.

SMP announced a list of 28 titles currently scheduled for publication throughout 2000 that will be released in paper and digital formats. And Steve Cohen, senior v-p of finance and administration at St. Martin\’s Press, told PW the house has 300 to 400 titles that it could conceivably release in both forms. \”Eventually, every SMP title will be released simultaneously in print and in digital form,\” he said. And those numbers, Cohen added, don\’t even include Tor, SMP\’s science fiction imprint. \”We get a lot of requests for Tor editions,\” he said. Currently, SMP makes the digital files of selected titles available to a variety of e-book distribution channels for conversion into all available e-book formats


Cohen said that beginning with Monica\’s Story in 1998, SMP made 130 of its titles available in a variety of downloadable formats, including Rocket eBook, SoftBook and Palm Pilot editions. Rather than the traditional publishing \”80/20\” model (80% of sales come from 20% of the titles), Cohen said 118 of the titles reported at least some sales and the top 10 sellers represented 50% of the sales. \”People were buying across the list,\” said Cohen. General fiction, rather than science fiction or nonfiction as might be expected, was the top-selling category. The top five e-titles sold 500 to 1,000 copies each, and the next five sold 250 copies each. \”To me, this says that the market is hungry for material. These numbers are very encouraging,\” said Cohen. SMP\’s bestselling e-titles included Digital Fortress by Dan Brown and Reckless Homicide, a thriller by Ira Genberg.


\”We\’re committed to learning more about e-book publishing,\” said Cohen. E-books, he said, \”bring the author to a wider audience. They generate incremental business and I don\’t believe they steal print sales.\” Besides, Cohen said, \”e-books are getting great media attention and that attracts even more attention to your titles.\”


Cryptography Is an Urgent Need


At the Digital Rights Management seminar held in New York last month, Martin Eberhard, CEO of NuvoMedia, urged e-book publishers to be sure that they are taking the necessary steps to prevent the widespread illegal copying that has already caused problems in the music CD and DVD video.


As publishers begin to follow music into the brave new world of electronic distribution, Eberhard said, \”publishers can learn from the music industry\’s expensive mistakes of taking copyright enforcement lightly.\” The best way for publishers to protect copyright is to combine a legal approach with effective technical safe guards, Eberhard said.
\”

New digital archive at MIT

news.excite.com carried a story on
Hewlett-Packard and the MIT Libraries.
They announced a $1.8 million joint project to build a digital archive at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that could serve as a model for other universities.

The archive will be capable of holding the approximately 10,000 articles produced by MIT authors annually, including a large amount of multimedia content.

news.excite.com carried a story on
Hewlett-Packard and the MIT Libraries.
They announced a $1.8 million joint project to build a digital archive at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that could serve as a model for other universities.

The archive will be capable of holding the approximately 10,000 articles produced by MIT authors annually, including a large amount of multimedia content.In addition to establishing its own research team at the university, HP Labs will provide the university with $1.8 million for the two-year project to cover staff, equipment and space. The system is expected to be able to begin accepting submissions late next year.


\”Information technology is transforming higher education,\” said MIT Provost Robert A. Brown. \”This project will give MIT and other research universities the tools they need to capture the digital output of their institutions, just as they have with print.\”


\”The purpose of this project is to develop a scalable digital archive with storage, submission, retrieval, searching, access control, rights management and publishing capabilities,\” said Ann Wolpert, director of the MIT Libraries. \”As MIT\’s intellectual heritage makes its way into electronic form, the library must take responsibility for capturing those documents that will form the foundation of tomorrow\’s scholarship.\”

\”This digital archive will be designed in such a way that the underlying software, data models and methods can be shared freely with other academic institutions,\” said Dick Lampman, HP vice president of research and director of HP Labs. \”Eventually, the project could be adopted by other research universities worldwide.\”

\”

Search engine on your computer

Kenjin was launched officially this week. They claim \”Autonomy Kenjin is the first Internet information service that delivers the right information to you exactly when you need it – no matter where it happens to be. From the Web, from your hard drive or from people who know.\”
It works like a search engine, but the program is on your computer. They make it sound like it\’ll kill off Yahoo. I\’ll be downloading and trying it soon.

Kenjin was launched officially this week. They claim \”Autonomy Kenjin is the first Internet information service that delivers the right information to you exactly when you need it – no matter where it happens to be. From the Web, from your hard drive or from people who know.\”
It works like a search engine, but the program is on your computer. They make it sound like it\’ll kill off Yahoo. I\’ll be downloading and trying it soon.


Features

Auto-Suggest

  • Links to related content automatically appear when text is read or typed within any Windows application (Word, WWW, Emails, Excel, PowerPoint…)
  • Suggests at regular intervals, or when hot key is pressed.
  • Users can choose content sources — web, news sites, PC hard drive or other users of the service
  • Uses full conceptual context of active task or document rather than simply keywords, to ensure the most robust and accurate related content is suggested

User Interface

  • Can appear as suggested links become available
  • Double-click on link and it automatically opens in the source application
  • Can sit on top of all other applications or appear as a toolbar docked to the top or bottom of the screen

Other Features

  • Targeted advertisements shown while suggesting links
  • Optionally add yourself to the online community of Web users
  • Automatically detects addresses, companies and countries in text and can open the relevant map (US/UK/Germany and Italy all currently supported) or company-related information with the click of a mouse

Paper as Portal

I\’m not sure what to make of this. It scares me, and at the same time, it could be used for good, more than evil.

\”Digimarc, a company previously involved with watermarking technologies, has developed an extremely intriguing application for the PC camera which enables direct print-to-web advertising. The technology, dubbed MediaBridge, incorporates the PC camera, the Internet and print media into one streamlined advertising process. … the MediaBridge technology is an important example of how PC cameras can be used outside of the traditional video mail, web posting and videoconferencing applications.\”


This allows you to put ads into a book that appear on a computer screen, \”Paper as Portal\” they call it.
Check it out and let us know what you think!

I\’m not sure what to make of this. It scares me, and at the same time, it could be used for good, more than evil.

\”Digimarc, a company previously involved with watermarking technologies, has developed an extremely intriguing application for the PC camera which enables direct print-to-web advertising. The technology, dubbed MediaBridge, incorporates the PC camera, the Internet and print media into one streamlined advertising process. … the MediaBridge technology is an important example of how PC cameras can be used outside of the traditional video mail, web posting and videoconferencing applications.\”


This allows you to put ads into a book that appear on a computer screen, \”Paper as Portal\” they call it.
Check it out and let us know what you think!
Digimarc is currently developing a fundamentally new way to access and use the Internet by embedding imperceptible digital data in traditional and digital media. This includes printed materials such as magazine advertisements, articles, covers and subscription cards; direct mailers; packaging; debit and credit cards; greeting cards; coupons; catalogues; tickets; business cards; and digital content such as video, images and other creative properties in digital form. The embedded data creates a bridge between these materials and the Internet, permitting users to link directly to relevant Web destinations without any typing or mouse clicks. Our technology gives digital capabilities to physical media allowing new forms of interaction with the digital world and enhancing publishing, advertising and electronic commerce.

Stephen King Hacked already

Riding the Bullet\” Stephen King\’s new E-Book has been released for free on the Internet. The book widely available for a download-only (the file’s encryption disabled printing) fee of $2.50 through many online booksellers, or free from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.com, was a huge success, overloading many of the servers it was on when it was released. Unknown parties cracked the file’s copyright protections and released PDF versions that were available on many Web sites.
Currents.net has more on this story

Riding the Bullet\” Stephen King\’s new E-Book has been released for free on the Internet. The book widely available for a download-only (the file’s encryption disabled printing) fee of $2.50 through many online booksellers, or free from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.com, was a huge success, overloading many of the servers it was on when it was released. Unknown parties cracked the file’s copyright protections and released PDF versions that were available on many Web sites.
Currents.net has more on this story


Len Kawell, president of Glassbook Inc., one of the publishers that are electronically distributing King\’s \”Riding the Bullet,\” told Newsbytes this afternoon that he knows of two sites upon which pirated versions of the e-book were posted, and that publishers are working with the FBI to find the encryption breakers and be sure the sites and other Internet rogues do not offer the counterfeit copies.


Pirates used some type of \”cracking\” method to open the PDF file that King\’s book was in, Kawell said. \”Piracy is inevitable. There is no technological solution to piracy. There are laws that have been enacted by the government outlawing copyright infringement of materials posted on the Internet,\” he said.

Columbus to direct Potter Movie

The highly anticipated film adaptation of \”Harry Potter\” will be directed by Chris Columbus, Warner Bros. Pictures announced Tuesday.


You may remember him from such films as Bicentennial Man, Stepmom, Nine Months, Mrs. Doubtfire, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Only the Lonely, Home Alone Heartbreak Hotel, Adventures in Babysitting

Anti-porn software company ends lawsuit

The guys who wrote the CP Hack program that showed how to bypass Cyber Patrol, the \”cphack\” program also discloses the list of sites the product blocks users from viewing.


Earlier this month, the company sued and Judge Edward Harrington issued a preliminary court order ordering a halt to the distribution of the program.

The judge also blocked distribution of the software by \”those persons in active concert or participation with them.\” Microsystems lawyers said the order extended to any Web sites that \”mirrored\” — or made copies available — of the \”cphack\” software.

So what will happen with the program? It was originally released under the GPL, so technically it should be alive and well.

The guys who wrote the CP Hack program that showed how to bypass Cyber Patrol, the \”cphack\” program also discloses the list of sites the product blocks users from viewing.


Earlier this month, the company sued and Judge Edward Harrington issued a preliminary court order ordering a halt to the distribution of the program.

The judge also blocked distribution of the software by \”those persons in active concert or participation with them.\” Microsystems lawyers said the order extended to any Web sites that \”mirrored\” — or made copies available — of the \”cphack\” software.

So what will happen with the program? It was originally released under the GPL, so technically it should be alive and well.
Slashdot of course ran a story on this, they aren\’t really sure who won either.
They also have the Press Release from the ACLU when they got involved Here.
If this story interests you, also be sure to check out peacefire.org
You can read about the GPL and what that\’s about at the
GNU Free Documentation License

Columbine being rebuilt

A couple of stories are running in the Denverpost on the Columbine High School Library.


Story 1
Construction is set to start May 29 on the new Columbine High library, with many of the contractors – including those working on the new Denver Broncos stadium – donating their services to help offset the $3.1 million cost.


Story 2
A group of average people has organized a not-so-average event to help raise some of the $3.1 million needed to build a new library for Columbine High School.


Donations can be sent to HOPE Columbine Atrium and Library Fund, c/o The Denver Foundation, P.O. Box 24035, Denver 80224. Make checks payable to HOPE.

A couple of stories are running in the Denverpost on the Columbine High School Library.


Story 1
Construction is set to start May 29 on the new Columbine High library, with many of the contractors – including those working on the new Denver Broncos stadium – donating their services to help offset the $3.1 million cost.


Story 2
A group of average people has organized a not-so-average event to help raise some of the $3.1 million needed to build a new library for Columbine High School.


Donations can be sent to HOPE Columbine Atrium and Library Fund, c/o The Denver Foundation, P.O. Box 24035, Denver 80224. Make checks payable to HOPE.
The fund-raiser also will have a silent auction that includes a football autographed by former Broncos great John Elway and a basketball signed by Denver Nuggets coach and former player Dan Issel. Former Broncos Karl Mecklenburg and Mike Horan will be on hand to offer more autographs.

The event will be at the Ascot Theater, 9136 W. Bowles Ave., Littleton. Hours will be from 7 to 10 p.m. April 7, noon to 9 p.m. April 8 and noon to 6 p.m. April 9. Admission is free.
Most of the carnage during the April 20 massacre happened in the library.

Kahn said the goal is to provide a \”place where children can learn, not a place where children have bad memories.\”

Donations are coming in from prison inmates, kids sending their weekly allowances, children raising pennies in schools, and a family who opted to donate money instead of exchanging Christmas presents.

\”The outpouring has been unbelievable,\” Kahn said.


Donations can be sent to HOPE Columbine Atrium and Library Fund, c/o The Denver Foundation, P.O. Box 24035, Denver 80224. Make checks payable to HOPE.