Gary Wolf, The Great Library of Amazonia, preview article from the December issue of Wired Magazine. Fascinating detail on how Amazon solved the technical and legal problems barring the path to this useful service. Wolf also includes a conversation with Brewster Kahle on the Million Book Project, and a glimpse of a Lessig-Stanford project to offer open access to any book by a consenting copyright holder. (PS: The prospect of open access to books, even books that produce revenue for copyright holders, is suddenly a serious possibility, even if it's still over the horizon. Amazon's Jeff Bezos emphasizes that his step in that direction is small. But this modesty seems to be part of his plan to secure the permission and cooperation of publishers. At the same time, he encourages us to think more grandly about the steps that may lie beyond the one he has taken.)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 10/24/2003 08:28:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
