The Federal Government has withdrawn completely from involvement
with a database that contains full text documents published by NTIS
because the fact that the database is fee based is in conflict with the
policy of making government information available without cost from
government internet sites. An excerpt of the New York Times article that
discusses this issue will be found below with a link to the orignal
article. An article excerpt with a link to the original article will also
be archived in an issue of E-Carm News found at http://www.ecarm.org (.)
The database will be available as a fee based service from a private
search service. There is also discussion of new anti-spam legislation in
Congress that is reported on in this article.
Sincerely,
David Dillard
Temple University
(215) 204 - 4584
jwne@astro.temple.edu
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: New York Times (NYT)
Author: JERI CLAUSING
Title: Government Pulls Out of Search Venture
Source Date: June 15, 1999
Resource Type: News Article
Description/Keywords: Government Support, Online Database, Termination, Fees
URL: Listed Below Article Summary
June 15, 1999
By JERI CLAUSING
Government Pulls Out of Search Venture
WASHINGTON -- The Department of Commerce has officially
pulled out of a controversial Internet partnership with the
search services company Northern Light Technology.
The new service, which was designed to let
paying customers find government information
on the Internet quickly and easily, was officially
launched on Monday, but as a strictly private
venture.
The Commerce Department's National
Technical Information Service had planned to
unveil the fee-based service with Northern Light
last month, but the joint venture was put on hold
after critics questioned whether it contradicted the Clinton
Administration's pledge to make the Internet and government
information more accessible to everyone.
So while top-level Commerce officials who had been unaware of
the partnership investigated the matter, Northern Light began
offering free trials of the search service.
Full Story May Be Found At:
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/06/cyber/capital/15capital.html