Caltech released the three volumes of Feynman Lectures in Physics.
Their content is available online in HTML5 with high quality graphics and equation using SVG and LaTeX equations rendered by MathJax JavaScript, with a strange requirement of having "Local Storage" enabled - but probably is one of the few sites the privacy conscious would worth disabling the script blockers.
The terms of use for the content clearly states:
that this edition is only free to read online, and this posting does not transfer any right to download all or any portion of The Feynman Lectures on Physics for any purpose;
This seems somewhat counterintuitive.
- For a pedantic mind, reading online still required the download of the content, even if only in the temp space of the browser.
- The lack of any explicit mention of "fair use" provisions is also a bit disturbing.
Anyhow, for those that want to reward the effort of shifting to an electronic format, the eBook editions are available for purchase on a large number of places.
(Score: 4, Informative) by cafebabe on Sunday August 24 2014, @07:49PM
After browsing through the JavaScript, I found the URL format is as follows. The table of contents for each volume is available via:-
Each section is available in the form:-
and it is possible to hyperlink to subsections, paragraphs and diagrams in the following form:-
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(Score: 2) by mendax on Sunday August 24 2014, @08:34PM
It's not very legalistic but their intent is clear: Watch them via their web site but don't try to make your own copies.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 24 2014, @08:59PM
By viewing any content online you are effectively downloading all of it.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Sunday August 24 2014, @09:26PM
Burn after reading? For your eyes only? "In five minutes, this tape will self-destruct." Or only in the "Cone of Silence"? Seems like physics is becoming more like spy-thriller fiction. Surely you jest, Dr. Feynman!
(Score: 1) by hopp on Monday August 25 2014, @02:49AM
Or perhaps they're disregarding the very laws of physics themselves.
(Score: 2, Funny) by dime on Sunday August 24 2014, @10:12PM
Caltech is going to have to fight the Office of Naval Research for the rights to the trademark Feynman Lectures in Physics.
The press release department of the ONR have shown prior art by submitting their patent application first in the form of the preceding SN article.
(Score: 2) by carguy on Monday August 25 2014, @12:55AM
Caltech is going to have to fight the Office of Naval Research ...
Not sure where ONR fits into the picture? The logistics and rights (copyright?) issues are discussed in some detail by Kip S. Thorne in the new preface, http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/I_90.html [caltech.edu]
(Score: 1) by dime on Monday August 25 2014, @01:10AM
Was a joke as I click on this link and on the page, the title of the lectures were called Feynman Lectures on Physics and the previous article on Soylent News was called "Meet F.L.I.P. (the FLoating Instrument Platform)", a project by the Office of Naval Research.
(Score: 2) by cafebabe on Monday August 25 2014, @01:15AM
I think it was a humorous reference to the previous article about FLIP [FLoating Instrument Platform] [soylentnews.org], as opposed to FLP [Feynman Lectures in Physics] [soylentnews.org].
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(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Sunday August 24 2014, @11:54PM
Oh, whoops, my finger slipped and I accidentally saved it all to my hard drive (to which it had already been downloaded because my browser has this fancy thing called a "cache" - it's the next big thing!)
Now I just need to accidentally convert all the embedded formulae into images so I can read it on my Kindle. Anyone got any ideas on how to do so?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday August 25 2014, @02:11AM
What source format are the formulas in?
Any example?
(having this material in a e-ink reader would be great!)
(Score: 3, Informative) by maxwell demon on Monday August 25 2014, @07:25AM
LaTeX format. As the summary states, it uses MathJax for the formulas. MathJax converts (a subset of) LaTeX math to HTML using JavaScript in your browser. If you don't execute the JavaScript, the formulas appear in LaTeX form in the text.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday August 25 2014, @11:45PM
So it's possible to download it all in plain LaTeX and then use a dito renderer on the e-ink reader to read it?
(great!)
(Score: 1) by Dachannien on Monday August 25 2014, @03:28AM
The publishers don't have to provide any notifications concerning fair use, and it shouldn't be surprising or concerning that they chose not to do so. Fair use is specifically about what you are allowed to do by law when you don't have the copyright holder's permission to do things with the content in question.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Monday August 25 2014, @09:14AM
But it seems that the alleged (I am not sure this is legally established) possessors (maybe they are only squatters) of the copyright (if there is such a thing) are asserting there are no fair use rights! So are you suggesting that when someone who makes things publically available says that they are not, we should just ignore their logically contradictory and legally non-sensical assertions and just do what ever we want with the knowledge that belongs to mankind as a whole? Well, that is just crazy talk, sir! Of course you have to have the copyright holder's permission to use something for fair use, or it would not be fair use and you would not have to pay money for it and that is the only thing that makes it fair. No? Feynman is dead? Oh. I always say, dead men tell no tales, and dead men hold no rights, expecially copy rights. Well, maybe they hold a right not to have their good name impunged by patent-troll like copyright claimers or having their body desecrated in various nasty ways (Sir Robin!), but no, dead men (and women!) cannot hold copyright. So how are we supposed to get permission? Does Ouiji board permission count? Imaginary property, post-mortem ethereal property, ghostly property that will put a curse of 5 years or $250,000 on you with the help of Interpol. Fair use for the living, I say! Who's with me?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 25 2014, @01:25PM
one of the few sites the privacy conscious would worth disabling the script blockers