AA>Part of this is Greek to me, and part I understand.  I guess I was 
thinking 
  >the uses that a teacher might make of it, not of its being used by a 
lass,
  >although I can see how the latter would be possible under certain
  >circumstances.
Perceptive post about the realities of where we could go.  That nasty
word come to mind though which is greed. :)  Humans are greedy by nature
for the most part even though we don't want to admit it.  We speak of
intellectual rights and yet the information we have within our intellect
was taken from someone else for the most part.  This is especially true
of text books.  An original poem, song, auto biography, or true
invention, to name a few,  should be protected to some extent IMO.
I think my son put it best when he said knowledge should be offered for
free.  He made the distinction that the teacher should be adequately
compensated but the knowledge should be available to all.  Most if not
all research is funded by the general public, either directly or
indirectly through other methods.  Some of the best software I have is
free ware and yes I do register it if it really performs the function
desired.  The difference to me is that software is aa original product
and a text books for the most part only a guide book for individuals to
use in the acquisition of knowledge.
IMO the almighty dollar and the associated greed will be a somewhat
limiting factor for the transfer of information via the internet.  On
the academic side I would imagine a certain amount of fear of the
unknown will hold back progress for a time.
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