Monthly Archives: May 2010

More insight into DRM at the BL (Bill McCoy, ex-Adobe)

Typed on a slightly dodgy keyboard into Arcturus I have had an excellent, long and thoughtful reply from Bill McCoy. I quoted from his blog at Adobe (http://wwmm.ch.cam.ac.uk/blogs/murrayrust/?p=2396 ), where he highlighted the shortcomings of some Adobe products. I thought … Continue reading

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I do/not have to show my face when voting. Thanks to Electoral Commission and WhatDoTheyKnow

Typed on a slightly dodgy keyboard into Arcturus I have received a useful reply from the Electoral Commission. You may remember that I wished to vote in the recent election without showing my face (http://wwmm.ch.cam.ac.uk/blogs/murrayrust/?p=2331 ), was requested to do … Continue reading

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The power of the scholarly individual in the Internet Age

Typed on a slightly dodgy keyboard into Arcturus I don’t get huge numbers of comments (people shouldn’t feel reluctant) but sometimes you get a post that makes it all worthwhile. I’ve had a mixed day, spilling tea on my laptop … Continue reading

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Canadian competition to re-use Government data

Typed on a Very dodgy keyboard into Arcturus   Here is a great competition from Canada to re-use government data http://apps4climateaction.gov.bc.ca/   Maybe we can Persuade Them To Label the Data As Open Data. Perhaps someone might like To make … Continue reading

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Adobe: “the current situation [lack of accessibility in Adobe Digital Editions] is simply unacceptable”.

Typed on a dodgy keyboard into Arcturus There are several reasons why the DRM practised by the British Library is completely unacceptable. Some are subjective, but some are objective. One of the latter is accessibility. This is a technical term … Continue reading

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“no doubt at all that theDRM-limited system […] is appallingly unfunctional”

Comment scraped into Arcturus Another very useful contribution. Chris Rusbridge has just stepped down from running the Digital Curation Centre. Chris highlights the problem. It’s the publishers. I know at second-hand how difficult it was for the NIH to push … Continue reading

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“many librarians/libraries are very, very risk averse”

Comment scraped into Arcturus Another very useful contribution from Stephanie Taylor. This is, perhaps, the main issue – that libraries and librarians are far too risk averse. I think the BL has been too risk-averse (though I have yet to … Continue reading

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BL: Update, including more useful comments from Owen Stephens

Comment scraped into Arcturus The bulk of this message is valuable comments from Owen Stephens. My current plan is to draft a letter to the BL this evening. My conclusions are: There is widespread unhappiness about the use of DRM … Continue reading

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The BL’s position becomes somewhat clearer but additional comments welcome

Comment scraped into Arcturus I’ve had a really helpful comment from Stephanie Taylor who says (in full): May 10, 2010 at 6:06 pm  (Edit) Hi, I’m based in the UK and have an inter-library loans background in academic libraries. I’m currently … Continue reading

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Does Secure Electronic Delivery **REQUIRE** DRM?

Comment scraped into Arcturus Does Electronic Delivery (even Secure Electronic Delivery) REQUIRE DRM? This is at the heart of my argument. Owen Stephens has given a careful and useful reply and since he is the only Librarian in the UK … Continue reading

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