Slashdot | The Return of Eric Weisstein's World Of Mathematics

[Karsten M. Self]

on Tue, Nov 06, 2001 at 06:48:29PM -0600, measl at mfn.org (measl at mfn.org) wrote:
> On Tue, 6 Nov 2001, Karsten M. Self wrote:
> 
> >     Apparently impervious to irony, CRC at the same time acknowledged in
> >     its own court filing that the book was the company's best-selling
> >     mathematics title! (This, one month after Mr. Stern had "explained"
> >     to me that my book was a back list item that I should not be
> >     surprised to see dropped from its promotional materials.)
> 
> <snip>
> 
> >     In addition to its "instant win," CRC will be paid annually for
> >     books they don't sell, according to a formula that both sides have
> >     accepted--although we continue to believe that any past or future
> >     failure to achieve projected sales is far more plausibly attributed
> >     to CRC's abysmal marketing efforts than to any abuse of the web site
> 
> <snip>
> 
> >     Another important change is that, as part of the settlement
> >     agreement, CRC Press will now be given permission to create editions
> >     of the printed book based on future snapshots of the web site. As a
> >     result, CRC insisted that broad reproduction rights to all
> >     contributed material be secured. Furthermore, if we are not able to
> >     secure such rights, then Wolfram Research and I, at our own expense,
> >     must rewrite the entries in question from scratch for CRC to
> >     reproduce. 
> 
> And he *agreed* to this???
> 
> Sorry, but as far as I am concerned, he lost any and all right(s) to
> bitch about this when he agreed to the "instant win".
> 
> What kind of dipshit would AGREE to these kind of things?

I certainly don't have the full story.

Many lawsuits are ultimately settled by strategic assessment:  does it
make more sense to stand and fight, or to settle and avoid more legal
expenses.  Going up against a publishing beheamoth, the decision of Eric
Weisstein and Wolfram makes a certain amount of sense, particularly for
a risk-averse company (and virtually all companies are risk averse).

There's also the case of various organizations which have sued MAPS.
Simply doing so is largely a losing proposition.  There are effectively
two MAPS blacklists:  one you can get yourself off of by correcting a
situation, and one you'll never get off of by virtue of having reached a
"settlement" with the company.  named.conf files in domains I control
have authoritative entries for 247media.com, blackice.com, exactis.com,
experian.com, harrisinteractive.com, and liveprayer.com.  These are
hardcoded in countless systems, not maintained by MAPS and other
RBLs, and they're not negotiable.

The CRC / Information Holdings "victory" is likely to have two lasting
impacts:

  - Other authors of useful online scientific sites are going to be far
    less likely to enter into agreements with the company, and if they
    do so, under terms other than the contract Eric initially signed.

  - The general press for scientific authors (particularly of
    peer-reviewed journal articles) to find terms other than permanent
    assignment of all (or at least substantive) copyright will increase.

I see this as a win battle / lose war scenario.



I also see a potential third scenario.  The MathWorld archive is largely
notable for two characteristics:

  - It's associated with Eric Weisstein, and benefits greatly from his
    stewardship.

  - Its true strength comes form the guided contributions of many
    individuals to the site.  It's not a product, it's a process.

One alternative may be for Eric to continue maintenance of existing
content on the MathWorld site, but to create a new site, independent in
name from MathWorld, to which user contributions are made.  Whether or
not this is possible depends heavily on the specifics of the CRC
settlement.  My feeling is that CRC/IH have slain their golden goose in
this case.

Peace.

-- 
Karsten M. Self <kmself at ix.netcom.com>       http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
 What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand?             Home of the brave
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Geek for Hire                     http://kmself.home.netcom.com/resume.html
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