The Encyclopedia Britannica has been quietly going on CD-ROM. At the weekend the Royal Blind Society was lent a copy to use with its software that converts text into sound.
Mark I is expected to be available in October with an official announcement on the launch date next month. It will be text-only. There has been some copyright difficulties with the pictures which is being overcome for Mark II.
Apparently it is to have some sophisticated query software which does not need complicated Boolean operators but will accept dumb questions like “”Do fish hibernate?” Presumably you can do standard word searches as well. The Windows-based software will remember searches and will allow cut and paste into other applications.
The single CD will contain the 41 million words in the Britannica.
Apparently the cost will be about the same as the books, but searching for information will be easier and more thorough.
For example, searching for “”Beethoven” would reveal the Beethoven entry, plus the fact that the word “”Beethoven” appears three times in the entry under “”Symphony”, twice under “”concerto” and so on.
Britannica in Australia is being very coy about it because they cannot get instructions from the US.
Perhaps they are worried people will not buy the books if it is known widely and sales will dry up until the CD is available.
I would strongly advise potential encyclopedia buyers to await the CD. The CD’s power over reference material will make reference books museum pieces within the decade.
Britannica is already on the Internet for selected people. No doubt it will be there for everyone for a subscription price before long. But modem access is much slower than CD and you have to pay phone costs, and on-line costs are ticking away turning the joy of encyclopedia browsing into a tension-inducing money worry.
There are several encyclopedias on CD now, but Britannica has the reputation of being the world’s best. No doubt it will have the price to match, say, $2700, compared to around $300 for lesser ones.
Still, a couple of major products on CD plus a computer to run them on will cost less than the books.
But there are security problems with CD s. If you have lashed out say $1500 for the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary or $2700 for the Britannica, it is a big investment in a tiny bit of plastic.
People who break into houses like stealing CD s. They are nearly always music CD s which resell for a few dollars. What a gruesome fate for the Britannica. Do not store information CD s in anything that looks like a music CD box, nor leave them lying around. They are, too, easy to scoop up.
Fortunately, Australia is at the cutting edge of CD security against piracy. Brylar, Disk ROM and Aunty Abha, for example, have developed cunning software that makes their CD s worthless if they are stolen. They simply will not run on any computer but that of the true owner. So if the CD is lost, destroyed or stolen, these companies will happily replace them. Brylar (02 7874255) does Brylar’s Australian on Disk which is Australia’s phone books (Yellow and White) with six monthly updates. Disk ROM (02 2235911) does Commonwealth and most state statutes and all federal case law with monthly updates and Aunty Abha (02 2614288) does Commonwealth and NSW statutes with quarterly updates. The Attorney-General’s Department is still dithering with taxpayers’ money on reinventing the wheel that these company’s have already produced.
The three companies all frequently update and the old disks are just chucked out. (That is far less environmentally destructive than producing stacks of paper versions).
Typically, the CD produces a random number like 34R-TYW-75T. You telephone the company for the unlocking key. Aunty Abha, for example, can give one of a range of unlocking keys to give a range of accesses, varying the time and the number of products.
Incredibly, OED does not have any security on it.
I hope Britannica does. If a product has security on it, it means updates can be sent that are in fact a replacement product and there is no danger of the outdated product being given to someone else.
So instead of producing year books, Britannica would replace the whole 1995 edition with the whole 1996 edition to an existing owner for, say, $100. It cannot do that if the 1995 edition does not have security on it because the owner would pass it on to someone else, denying Britannica a possible sale.
Producers of CD s of things like law, phone books, government directories and the like can get themselves a steady drip feed of renewers if the security on the first version is tight.
I suspect that as CD-ROM drives become more common nearly all software will be distributed on CD with unlocking codes (obtained over the phone). Once loaded the software will work only on that computer. Any attempt to load it on another computer will produce a demand for a new unlocking code. If the computer crashes, a new unlocking key is a phone call away, only if you are the original registered purchaser. It will be the virtual end of computer piracy.
This should bring the price of software down. Also as CD s are cheaper than floppies because they can store much more, the price should come down further.
United Directoy Systems (02 8910017) which produces “”Australia on Disk” says the registration system used by Brylar (which produces “”Brylar’s Australia on Disk”) is an intrusive marketing ploy and annoying for people at the weekend or after hours.
We are seeing some healthy competition in the CD market. UDS says its business directory is more comprehensive because it has added lots of business offices, contacts and addresses that are not in the Yellow Pages.
As in the law market we are seeing some healthy competition in the CD phone-book market. With a greater range of services and a greater range of prices.