TeleRead will never promise full nirvana through the spread of the written word. Libraries and books, however stellar as sources of knowledge, pleasure and inspiration, can do only so much. The latest indication of this comes from the Mark Bowden's article in the May issue of the Atlantic Monthly, a brilliant profile of Saddam Hussein. "When I was in prison," Bowden quotes Saddam through a writer who talked to the dictator, "I read all of Ernest Hemingway's novels. I particularly like The Old Man and the Sea."Lo and behold, the great Saddam is himself an amateur novelist, and here's...

"Officials at the Library of Congress say the irradiation of government mail is damaging some items intended for the library's collections."--Library Journal item (registration required)TeleRead angle: The irradiation is a protective measure required by the anthrax threat to the Capitol, with which LOC share a ventilation system. What about the dirty-nuke threat? Time for a digital backup of the Library of Congress? And maybe more reliance on digital books--with a TeleRead-style library and systematic backups at many locations? Book preservation is too important to be left to publishers or even James Billington....

"The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) filed the 'Content Protection Status Report' with the Senate Judiciary Committee last month, laying out its plan to remake the technology world to suit its own ends. The report calls for regulation of analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), generic computing components found in scientific, medical and entertainment devices. Under its proposal, every ADC will be controlled by a 'cop-chip' that will shut it down if it is asked to assist in converting copyrighted material--your cellphone would refuse to transmit your voice if you wandered too close to the copyrighted music coming from your stereo."--Cory...

Beware. Efforts are underway to tear down the geographical barriers against Web-related libel suits from remote jurisdictions. The libel case discussed in the N.Y. Times today is domestic but at least indirectly might have implications all over the planet. One of the key components of TeleRead is the recognition that different nations have different cultures and different laws--hence this talk about well-stocked national digital libraries, plural. Let's hope that lawyer-related globalization is kept in check or at least kept rational. Imagine the prospect of international libel battles sparked by image-minded dictators who couldn't care less about Times vs. Sullivan....

Check out the e-book area of Operation Outreach-USA, which includes books downloadable in Microsoft Reader format--as well as accompanying guides for parents and teachers. The organization is a partner of America's Promise, Gen. Colin Powell's group.The Outreach program, which in a paper-book incarnation has been around for some years and reaches 3,000 schools, relies on car dealers and other sponsoring businesses and is intended to encourage both literacy and character development. The idea sounds intriguing even if Outreach is hardly a replacement for a well-stocked national digital library. One publisher, Storytellers, Inc., appears to dominate Outreach's e-book area, and...

The AOL faction's influence on AOL Time Warner continues to weaken, and that might have copyright implications--since the Old Media boys will be firming up their power in the areas of lobbying and tech policy. Ripples could be felt even at some net-oriented hardware companies, which can't afford to just ignore the wishes of big customers like AOL. Bottom line? Concerns of the publishing side of AOL could matter more than before, and this might come at the expense of the many-to-many model. Just speculation. Keep in mind that the new CEO of AOL is Richard Parsons, a lawyer...

Check out Rob Pegorano's column in Sunday's Washington Post. The Webcasters aren't out of the woods yet. Let's hope that when all is said and done, James Billington will be more sensible here than he is about electronic books. There may be hope, given all popularity of Web radio. His preliminary ruling earlier this month on Webcasting offered some hope....

"Remember Angus MacGyver, the secret agent on TV who used household items like a paper clip and lapel pin to best bazooka-wielding bad guys? Well, he's met his match in the real world in the form of music fans toting felt-tip markers, some fellows in a lab with a flashbulb and a cryptographer innovating uses for melted gelatin."Music enthusiasts in Europe last week cracked a copy protection system on Sony Music's compact discs. The system was supposed to prevent people from playing (and copying) music on personal computers, but users figured out they could evade the protection, and play...

NEW YORK CITY (CBS.MW) -- Analysts at Jupiter Media Metrix hold out little hope Web content publishers or Internet services providers will ever be able to generate big money online. Almost 70 percent of Web users said there were no services for which they would pay."--May 23rd item in CBS MarketwatchTeleRead would not make everything free, but woud vastly increase the number of free books, while arranging for fair compensation of writers and publishers from a national digital library fund....

"Believe it or not, newer copyright laws protect an artist's ownership of an impression for 75 years after the artist's death. Originally, copyright laws were designed to protect artists from rip-offs of their work. How is a dead artist getting ripped off? And the worst part about all this is that these laws apply to only a limited number of people...

About 15 friend-of-the-court briefs are now reachable via a page on the Openlaw site at Harvard. ...

My copy is hardly flawless, especially in this blog, which often serves as a kind of public notebook. Just the same, I grimaced when I read the item below--on a Motley Fool board--about editorial QC or the lack thereof at AOL Time Warner. I own a little sliver of the company's stock and may well dispose of the shares in the near future. I take it for granted that most major publishers will have obnoxious copyright policies, but I can put up with that as long as they run their operations competently. Needless to say, for many reasons, I'll...