Five years ago, Netscape founder Jim Barksdale and his late wife, Sally, “put up $100 million of their own money to improve ‘preliteracy’ skills for preschoolers and reading for children in kindergarten through third grade in Mississippi. The Oxford-based institute they created provides books and teacher training for some of the state’s neediest and lowest-performing schools. Barksdale chose his brother, attorney Claiborne Barksdale, to run the institute, with strict instructions that he wanted results. An independent analysis recently confirmed the program was making a statistically significant difference.”
Tag: 06.13.05
NY Library Starts Digital Borrowing Library
The New York Public Library says it is “making 700 books — from classics to current best sellers — available to members in digital audio form for downloading onto PCs, CD players and portable listening devices. Users can listen to digital audio books through a computer, burn them to CDs or transfer them to many portable devices, library officials said. Digital audio books are available for free to members through the library’s Web site. Users can borrow up to 10 digital books at a time, and after 21 days the materials will be automatically checked in and made available to others.”
European Labels Want Copyright Extension
European recording companies are pushing to have EU copyright term extended to 100 years. “Currently in the EU, there are separate copyright terms for composers and performers. Composers are awarded copyright for the life of the author plus 70 years. Performers hold a copyright for 50 years from the first recording. It’s the 50-year term the IFPI wants to extend.”