North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[list@ginda.us]

One additional issue that comes up with PDF distribution is copyrights. 
 Legally, the position is the same for stuff published electronically 
as on paper, but in practice, it is just so easy to copy electronic 
files that it happens a lot more often.  What might have been one guy 
giving a copy of one page to a friend on paper can become someone else 
"publishing" the same text on another forum.  At least on NAFEXer 
stopped posting to this list because there was no way to enforce (or 
even encourage people to observe) his copyright.

Publishing in PDF is pretty easy - anyone with a Mac running OS X 
(which seems to be a lot of us) could do it, although I don't have the 
time.  Distributing by e-mail wouldn't be that hard, either.  PDFs are 
easy to search.

Of course, my mail archive (on my home computer) is easy to search, 
too.  And I confess that I've taken my laptop into the bathroom with me 
to browse this mailing list.  Still, I'm happy getting Pomona in 
hardcopy, and I agree with the folks who point out that electronic 
formats go obsolete all too quickly.

Cheers,
Ginda


On Sunday, March 2, 2003, at 04:38  PM, Betty Mayfield wrote:

> To the list,
>
> The issue is not pro or anti-computers. Computers are great for what 
> they do best--fast communication for exchange of information and 
> performance of tedious jobs. But they are not good for relaxed hobby 
> reading.
>
> I just finished checking a copy of a pdf newsletter on another list.
>
> To begin with, it took 6 minutes to download (and I have a 56 modem).
>
> Then there was the tiresome scrolling from page to page while crouched 
> in front of the computer. I don't choose to invest $2500 or so in a 
> laptop to supplement my desktoop.
>
> And finally, there is the problem of storage and referring back to an 
> article at some future time. It is much faster to take a back copy off 
> a book shelf and flip through it than to scroll back and forth through 
> multiple files.
>
> As far as cost is concerned, it is only the Adobe Acrobat reader that 
> is free--the program to post articles costs big bucks. And there would 
> be additional costs for archival storage, with the risk that a change 
> of servers or a new virus could wipe out archives. (Not an imaginary 
> danger. There was some European travel magazine that lost its store of 
> archived photos a couple years ago when the Love Bug virus hit.)
>
> Some people have advocated a choice, with the implication that a 
> printed version would have more expensive dues. But the online version 
> would have its own set of costs,
>
> Betty Mayfield
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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