SC - What I wish I knew (was WoW)

[LrdRas@aol.com]

Ras commented:
> With over half of American households having web access there is no reason
> that the resources of library cannot be made to everyone on-line. When one of
> those resources is offered for a short while and then snatched awy, I find it
> appalling. I also find it offensive that the priveleged few have free access
> while others must go out of their way to get access. This is not the
> universities fault. They offered it freely but were forced to sign a
> restrictive use contract to be able to use the on-line version. The onus lies
> squarely on the shoulders of the publishers of this dictionary.

Partially I happen to agree with you, Ras. This largely looks like a
corporate move to both seed the market and protect an extablished cash cow.

I also think you have to grant them the right to make a profit on their
honest labors. I think it just gets a bit greedy when they try to keep
making the same profits on each item even though their distribution
costs have gone way, way down (sounds a bit like that company run by
bill gates doesn't it?). The encylopedia folks found they couldn't keep
charging hundreds or thousands of dollars for the CS-ROM versions as
they had for the paper versions. Perhaps the OED will find this out too.
Except they have no competition.

Ras, if you could get that OED online access again but at a fee, say
25 cents per access, would you then be happy? Or would they have to
get it for free?

Stefan (who can be just as opinionated as some folks here)
- -- 
Lord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas           stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:
         http://lg_photo.home.texas.net/florilegium/index.html ****
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