Link Smorgasbord, December 2015

Download 30 bewildering gigabytes of music cassettes from the experimental 1980s underground
Very neat collection up on the Internet Archive.

Penguin Random House announces new e-Book terms for libraries
The big news is the ebook licenses no longer expire instead of expiring after a year.  The prices have also come down to a cap of $65 per title in the US.

What is Error 451?
The idea is that ISPs display information when a URL is blocked for legal reasons, including the whys of those legal reasons.

US Budget Bill Passes With CISA Surveillance Intact
Apparently the answer to a bill that has generated incredible outrage and failed multiple times is to shove it into a huge omnibus bill and hope no one notices?
Additional reading: CISA Surveillance Bill Hidden Inside Last Night's Budget Bill

Marco Rubio and Other Senators Move To Block Municipal Broadband
This is pretty messed up, especially considering how many places a city light program is their only likelihood of getting reasonable internet connections.  Remember there are places that only have the option of dial-up or satellite because neither the phone companies nor the cable companies think it's worth building the infrastructure to those communities.

A Year of Reading Differently
On deliberate and unconscious choices in reading.

Privacy for e-book lovers: New challenges in the cloud sign-on era
Worth a read.

A list of non-“Big Five” tech company software/hardware
Personally I think his "Big Five" list is on the short side, and there a bunch of listings included that are the "big" option in that area (Photoshop is not the "alternative" image editing software...), but overall some good resources.

Sorry, librarians: You still don’t ‘get’ e-books—especially their potential as literacy boosters. Read this study!
So, the author of the article definitely misses some huge points in terms of the issues that we're still facing in terms of providing access that patrons will even deem reasonable, but it also does make some valid points.

The Ebook Retail Universe
Interesting

Libraries drive e-book sales
Nothing particularly new in this article, mostly that libraries are pretty valuable as discovery platforms for books.

Javascript user prohibitions are content DRM in microcosm—and even less effective
Pretty much what you'd expect from the title.

Crowdfunded 'Star Trek' Movie Draws Lawsuit from Paramount, CBS
I can't say I'm surprised by this, but it's still interesting considering the number of indie Star Trek films that have been made with Paramount and CBS's knowledge that they've ignored, or given that they've told others that they don't want their series, but that if they want to do it on their own go ahead just don't turn a profit.

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