INFO: United States Government Completely Pulls Out of Sponsorshipof Database That Provides FullText Documents From NTIS

["David P. Dillard" <jwne@astro.ocis.temple.edu>]

	The Federal Government has withdrawn completely from involvement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