Inside Higher Ed – University librarians and some academic publishers are optimistic about the possibility of reaching new agreements to make more academic articles fully open, but they acknowledge many challenges ahead. “Making the transition from paying to read to paying to publish academic research won’t be easy for universities or publishers. But it is… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Intellectual Property
Book publishers sue Audible to stop new speech-to-text feature
ars technica – Publishers say Audible’s new captions feature is illegal. Is it? – “Seven of the nation’s top book publishers sued Amazon subsidiary Audible on Friday, asking federal courts to block the company from releasing a new feature called Audible Captions that’s due out next month. The technology does exactly what it sounds like: display… Continue Reading
Linking Liability
Inside Higher Education – Sci-Hub, a repository for pirated research papers, is widely acknowledged to be illegal. But is sharing a link to the site illegal, too? “There is little dispute that Sci-Hub, the website that provides free access to millions of proprietary academic papers, is illegal. Yet, despite being successfully sued twice by major… Continue Reading
Anti-Piracy Efforts Are Unlikely to Beat Sci-Hub
Follow-up to previous posting with related links – Elsevier sends copyright threat to site for linking to Sci-Hub – see Torrent Freak – “Elsevier and other academic publishers see ‘pirate’ site Sci-Hub as a major threat to their billion-dollar industries. Many researchers, however, can’t function properly without the notorious site. Since anti-piracy efforts are unlikely… Continue Reading
Google’s jobs search draws antitrust complaints from rivals
Reuters: “Google’s fast-growing tool for searching job listings has been a boon for employers and job boards starving for candidates, but several rival job-finding services contend anti-competitive behavior has fueled its rise and cost them users and profits. In a letter to be sent to European Union competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager on Tuesday and seen… Continue Reading
A Plan for Federal Engagement in Developing Technical Standards and Related Tools
NIST – U.S. Leadership in AI: A Plan for Federal Engagement in Developing Technical Standards and Related Tools. Prepared in response to Executive Order 13859 Submitted on August 9, 2019. “…United States global leadership in AI depends upon the Federal government playing an active and purpose-driven role in AI standards development. That includes AI standards-related… Continue Reading
Almost half of employees have access to more data than they need
betanews: “A new study of over 700 full-time US employees reveals that that 48 percent of employees have access to more company data than they need to perform their jobs, while 12 percent of employees say they have access to all company data. The survey by business app marketplace GetApp also asked employees what classifications… Continue Reading
3D Printing: Overview, Impacts, and the Federal Role
CRS report via FAS – 3D Printing: Overview, Impacts, and the Federal Role, August 2, 2019: “Three-dimensional (3D) printing, also known as additive manufacturing, is a highly flexible manufacturing process that has been used in product development and production for the past 30 years. Greater capabilities, lower prices, and an expanded range of manufacturing materials… Continue Reading
The Radical Transformation of the Textbook
Wired – Digital-first. Open source. Subscription. The way textbooks are bought and sold is changing—with serious implications for higher education: “For several decades, textbook publishers followed the same basic model: Pitch a hefty tome of knowledge to faculty for inclusion in lesson plans; charge students an equally hefty sum; revise and update its content as… Continue Reading
Libraries are fighting to preserve your right to borrow e-books
Eponymous librarian (internet folk hero) Jessamyn West‘s Opinion piece on CNN –Libraries are fighting to preserve your right to borrow e-books – “Librarians to publishers: Please take our money. Publishers to librarians: Drop dead. That’s the upshot of Macmillan publishing’s recent decision which represents yet another insult to libraries. For the first two months after a… Continue Reading
Elsevier sends copyright threat to site for linking to Sci-Hub
Follow up to previous posting on BeSpacific – Science’s pirate queen Alexandra Elbakyan is plundering the academic publishing establishment (includes multiple sub-links) and SciHub continues to get attacked around the world – via Boing Boing: “Sci-Hub (previously) is a scrappy, nonprofit site founded in memory of Aaron Swartz, dedicated to providing global access to the… Continue Reading
Viral App FaceApp Now Owns Access To More Than 150 Million People’s Faces And Names
Forbes – “And we thought we learned a lesson from Cambridge Analytica. More than 100 million people have downloaded the app from Google Play. And FaceApp is now the top-ranked app on the iOS App Store in 121 countries, according to App Annie. While according to FaceApp’s terms of service people still own their own… Continue Reading
