Issues in the Digital Age 

A review of Lawrence Lessig's the Future of Ideas, The excess of control by Felix Stalder

In The Future of Ideas Lawrence Lessig, a professor at the Stanford Law School, conveys a bleak message: We are destroying the conditions of freedom and creativity on the Internet. Right at the moment when the Internet has begun to show its full potential for increasing growth and innovation globally, a counterrevolution is threatening, if not already succeeding, to undermine this potential. [read more]

E-Books 

Consortium of 12 Universities Begins Project to Deliver Academic E-Books by Jeffrey R. Young

Academic libraries and university presses at Big Ten universities and the University of Chicago have teamed up in an e-publishing venture that aims to put hundreds of scholarly books in electronic form.

Last month, leaders of the 12 universities committed from $50,000 to $100,000 to develop a prototype for the joint e-publishing venture, says Tom Peters, director of the consortium's center for library initiatives. The institutions have worked together for decades as part of a group called the Committee on Institutional Cooperation. [read more]

A New Museum for Books 

The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art

Where do you buy your books? 

Amazon.com Posts First-Ever Profit by Allison Linn

Amazon.com, the pioneering Internet retailer that has symbolized for many the potential and the pitfalls of dot-com commerce, posted its first net profit ever in the fourth quarter, beating its own forecasts and Wall Street's expectations.

For the quarter ended Dec. 31, the world's largest Internet retailer said it earned $5 million, or 1 cent a share, compared with a net loss of $545 million, or $1.53 per share, in the year-ago period.

The results were helped by lowered prices and companywide penny-pinching. [read more]

In New York, A Bookstore's Last Chapter by Lynne Duke

A "lost our lease" sign screams from the display windows wrapped around the northwest corner of busy West 57th Street and Broadway, anchored for nearly three decades by Coliseum Books. It was a special place, a New York niche, all about the mind and its passions, not just the mass-market book boom of the moment. You'd find no cappuccino machines inside Coliseum, no comfy couches. It was a bookstore both populist and purist. If it was in print, no matter how obscure or rarefied, you could find it on these shelves. Now, that's all over.

Next week the doors will close for good. George Leibson, 57, the owner, and the man who feels this is partly his fault, might try to go beyond Sunday, a couple more days of his book-selling life. In lieu of wife and children, Coliseum was his family. He is sad -- and embarrassed -- that it has come to this. [read more]

Suggestion: If you need or want to purchase a book, try a locally owned, independent bookstore in your town or neighborhood first.

For-profit library struggling 

Questia Media down to 28 workers by Tom Fowler

Another round of layoffs at online library and academic research firm Questia Media has reduced the company to a skeleton crew of about 28 workers, just enough to maintain its Web site.

About 40 workers were laid off last week without severance pay, sources say, when it became clear plans for another round of investment cash wouldn't materialize. The company previously raised more than $135 million and at one time employed over 300 workers, but has had several rounds of layoffs beginning last spring.

Questia is said to be looking for ways to cut expenses further, including moving into smaller offices than the high-rent space it occupies in Greenway Plaza, and ways to get out of long-term contracts and partnerships. Company officials did not return phone calls or e-mail requests for comment. [read more]

Information Technology 

Once-Trustworthy Newspaper Databases have Become Unreliable and Frustrating by Scott Carlson

... Mr. Chen is merely one librarian whose work has been affected by the Tasini case and others like it. Six months ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that publishers don't own the rights to online freelance articles. Other copyright battles between freelancers and publishers --Ýsuch as lawsuits between the National Geographic Society and a group of photographers --Ýare also moving through the courts. The publishers have responded by purging freelance articles --Ýsometimes entire newspaper archives --Ýfrom online databases. Almost 20 years' worth of newspaper history, a vital source of information for those studying history, politics, society, the media, and other subjects, is shot through with more holes than a block of Swiss cheese. [read more]

Intellectual Property 

Globalization of Information: Intellectual Property Law Implications by Kim Nayyer

Abstract
The globalization of information, facilitated by the Internet, has significant implications for intellectual property regimes domestically and internationally. Assessment of these implications and their probable outcomes is unavoidably value-driven. Many commentators foresee harmonization of intellectual property laws but some predict disparity in political economy outcomes. Some also see profound effects on sovereignty. A critical review of recent literature on these topics discloses a prevalent and rather persuasive view: that globalization of information and the impact of the Internet tend toward an international standard of strengthened intellectual property laws and the erosion of sovereignty notions, with the economic benefits flowing primarily to developed nations and transnational corporations. The prevalence of this view in the recent literature may reflect an effort to bring less heard voices to the forefront of the discussion. [read more]