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Danny Birchall > > But surely it's the death-knell for those hypertext utopias of Bush and Nelson? The > ultimate interlinking of all human knowledge laid low before a cost-benefit > analysis of the LT website sitting on some bureaucrat's desk? The real issue here > is the usefulness of hypertextual information, which is being stymied by issues of > IPR. > > Or am I just being idealistic? Perhaps just a tad! One thing which the various hypertext utopias failed to envision or prefered to ignore was the massive commercial take up of the WWW. We need more time for info models to adapt to the technology - but I doubt this will be helped by jumping on LT or others 'cause they see things differently from the academic community. The realistic approach is to accept commercial realities and understand them to arrive at a mutually acceptable solution. > Also: I assume that it's only the graphic design of the tube map itself that is > copyright and not the actual arrangement of the stations (as OS maps are copyright > but drawing a map of your favourite countryside walk doesn't violate that > copyright). Perhaps someone should do a freeware map of the underground (different > colours for the lines, different station symbols?) if LT are going to put > unreasonable restrictions on theirs? I don't know about the legality of this specific suggestion, but the 'net does open up enormous possibilities to work round "unreasonable" practices - though this may be exactly why some sites are so protective in the first place. Ultimately, however, unless the info providers have some vested interest (be it money, fame, etc.) you are not going to get a vast amount of top quality material - conditions of use will have to allow suppliers to benefit as well as users. Cheers Colin > Danny > > > > -------------------------------------------------- > Danny Birchall > Editor > University of Sussex Information Service > http://www.sussex.ac.uk/ > > [log in to unmask] > Tel: (0)1273 678745 > Fax: (0)1273 678441 > --------------------------------------------------- > > > -- _________________________________________________ Colin K. Work Computing Services University of Southampton email [log in to unmask] tel. 01703 593090 (direct line) %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%