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Thursday, February 14, 2013
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Amazon Patents Electronic Marketplace For 'Used' Digital Content
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by George H. Pike
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Will individuals soon be able to buy and sell "used" digital media such as apps, ebooks, and music downloads? And if so, will they only be able to do this through Amazon? These are among the questions being asked after Amazon, Inc. was awarded a U.S. patent for an "electronic marketplace for used digital objects." (U.S. Patent No. 8,364,595, available online at www.uspto.gov). The patent, which traveled a nearly 4-year journey from application to issuance, would permit users to create "personalized data stores"—presumably through Amazon—which would house digital media files and permit the files to be moved from one person's store to another through a secure system. The granting of the patent, however, does not mean that Amazon will actually establish the marketplace or that the use of the marketplace would be legal.
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DCL Teams With Bowker to Support Self-Publishers
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Digital publishing services provider Data Conversion Laboratory (DCL) announced a partnership with bibliographic information provider Bowker to better serve the self-publishing market. Bowker Identifier Services will now offer self-publishers DCL's EPUB on Demand eBook Product Service through Bowker's MyIdentifiers.com website.
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U.S. Government Printing Office Joins Pinterest
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The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) expanded its social media presence by joining Pinterest. Connecting people through "things" they find interesting is the founding principle of Pinterest and a natural fit with GPO's core mission of Keeping America Informed on the three branches of the federal government. GPO will use Pinterest to share historic photos, videos, products, and government publications with the public. Pinterest joins GPO's other social media platforms of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Government Book Talk blog.
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NISO and OAI Release Draft for Comments of 'ResourceSync Framework Specification'
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The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) and the Open Archives Initiative (OAI) announced the release of a beta draft for comments of the "ResourceSync Framework Specification" for the web detailing various capabilities that a server can implement to allow third-party systems to remain synchronized with its evolving resources. Feedback to this version of the specification is solicited and can be shared by March 15, 2013 on the ResourceSync Google Group. The ResourceSync joint project, funded with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and JISC, was initiated to develop a new open standard on the real-time synchronization of Web resources.
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A Cyber War Is Brewing
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by Paula J. Hane
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At first, it just seemed to be a trickle of bad news. This company or another was the object of a cyberattack. Sometimes it was the hackers group with the ominous-sounding name, Anonymous, that was blamed. Then, Anonymous reportedly defaced the entire MIT website in revenge following the recent suicide of Aaron Swartz. It also hacked the Department of Justice Sentencing Commission website and threatened to launch "multiple warheads." This prompted me to do some digging. I found that hacking incidents seem to be much more pervasive—and serious—than I'd thought. The reports of cybersecurity breaches have grown more numerous in the last few years, and there have been a flood of security warnings recently.
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