*** ANSWERMAN INTERNET EXTRA *** For the week of November 18, 1996 This is the weekly newsletter for the community of Internet users on America Online. Come see what's new at keyword ANSWERMAN. To unsubscribe from this newsletter, scroll down to the end of this message for instructions. *This week, AnswerMan's Focus is file archives and FTP* =*=*= IN THIS ISSUE =*=*= AnswerMan's Update -- Who Do These Bits Belong To? Eagle's Exploits -- File Archive Sites Upcoming Weekly Focus & Chats -- What's coming down the pipeline? The End -- How to contact us or unsubscribe =*=*= WHAT YOU CAN DO THIS WEEK WITH ANSWERMAN =*=*= Go to keyword: For: AM FOCUS Links to archive sites and file tips ANSWERMAN Internet message board, daily tips, more good stuff AM CHAT Read transcripts of Internet chats that you missed AM GLOSSARY RTFM to decrypt that Internet jargon NET HELP Get quick help for your Internet questions Here are direct links for AOL 3.0 users: Go to keyword AnswerMan AnswerMan Focus =*=*= ANSWERMAN'S UPDATE -- Who Do These Bits Belong To? =*=*= by Kevin Savetz (AnswerMan) This week's AnswerMan Focus is Internet file archives and FTP (file transfer protocol). If you're looking for a new computer game, some clip art, sound files or a utility to track taxes, chances are excellent that you'll find it in one of the Net's enormous file archives. It used to be that file sites were big, but it wasn't particularly easy to find what you were looking for unless yoiu knew the exact name of the file you were after -- not very practical. Thanks to some amazing search tools on the Web, such as shareware.com and download.com, you can search for files based on subject and title, or just peruse the archives for new goodies for your computer platform. At keyword AM FOCUS, you'll find links to some favorite Internet file archives. As you download copious amounts of good stuff from the Net, ask yourself: who does this information belong to? Information on the Internet comes from a bewildering number of people and places. In one afternoon, you can download a game from a an Australian programmer, read some newsgroup postings originating from the South Bronx and South America, then cruise web pages from Russia, Singapore, and Cleveland. Besides having a unique origin, each piece of information that you find on the Internet comes with rules regarding what you may do with it. Certainly the Internet stimulates the free flow of ideas and information, but it is important to keep in mind: that information probably has an owner, and you need to respect the rights of the owner. Take, for instance, software that you download from an FTP site. Some software is "freeware," other software is "shareware." Still other software is commercial, other programs are in the "public domain." "Shareware" is software that you are expected to pay if you use. It's sort of "try before you buy" software: download it, play with it, and if you use it on a regular basis, the author of the program expects you to pony up some money. On the other hand, "freeware" is a program that you can use for free--you can play with it all day long, with no cost to you. You can also find demonstrations of commercial software on the Internet: these are usually trial versions of a program, with some functions disabled. You can try it; if you like what you see, you can pay for the complete version. Each of these three types of programs is owned and copyrighted by someone. Even "freeware" is copyrighted by someone. So, although you can use it, if you want to redistribute it, or change it, or sell it, you need permission from the author before doing so. The only exception to this rule is material that is in the "public domain." Works in the public domain aren't owned by anyone--you can use it, change it, distribute it, drop copies from low-flying aircraft, do whatever you want to do with it, because the person who created it has given up (or lost) the rights to it. The term "public domain" is all too often misused -- "public domain FTP archives" are usually not archives of public domain software; they are archives of freeware, shareware, commercial demos--all copyrighted material, plus some "true" public domain material, too. Besides software, there are a lot of electronic texts, or etexts, on the Internet that are in the public domain. Classics like Alice in Wonderland, and the works of Shakespeare, whose authors are long gone or have relinquished copyright, are in the public domain. There are huge collections of public domain texts on the Internet--Project Bartleby at http://www.cc.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/ is one group that specializes in collecting public domain books on the Internet. I've created a list of public domain materials available on the Internet. Check out The Unofficial Public Domain Index at http://www.northcoast.com/savetz/pd/pd.html to see the index of PD material on the Internet. What's out there? You name it--graphics, sound files, software and etexts, and lots of other good stuff. If you don't see an explicit message stating that a work you find on the Net is in the public domain, it probably is copyrighted. This goes for software, electronic texts, and even postings on Usenet So, as you cruise the Internet, keep in mind that most of the stuff you find is owned by someone--and you should respect that ownership. And if you come across something that's in the public domain, consider it yours to do with as you please. Here are direct links for AOL 3.0 users: AnswerMan AnswerMan Focus shareware.com download.com Project Bartelby Public Domain Index =*=*= Eagle's Exploits -- File Archive Sites =*=*= by Aminie D. Elsberry (CJ Eagle) Eager to learn the intracicies of FTP? Check out Life on the Internet--FTP, a web page with almost everything you'd ever want to know and links to just about everywhere you'd want to go related to FTP. Located at http://www.cochran.com/understand/ftp.html, this site has links for novice and power users on either the Mac or Windows platform. Many files that you download from the Net are in a compressed format (such as .ZIP and .SIT). This makes the download time shorter, but it also means you need software to decompress the file once it's on your hard disk. You can find Stuffit Expander (for Macs) and Winzip (for Windows), tools for uncompressing files, at this site. Life on the Internet also contains links to some of the most popular FTP sites on the Internet. Let's take a look at some Internet file archives, shall we? The TUCOWS archive site at http://www.tucows.com/ is one of the most popular sites Internet for shareware. Here you can search for Win95, Windows 3, or Macintosh software. The site is pleasing to the eye and to your sense of humor. The files are rated -- those with the most "cows" are the most popular. If you don't know what you are looking for you can just click on the appropriate operating system and get a complete listing of all the available files by category. Categories include anti-virus scanners, HTML editors, stock quotes, utilities, audio applications, image viewers, Interent tools...and many more! Tucows is a very easy site to navigate and offers many "mirror sites" (sites that are duplicates of the original but may be closer to you or less busy). Shareware.com at http://www.shareware.com/ is another very popular site where you can search for shareware, freeware and public domain software in all flavors of Windows, Mac, Amiga, DOS, OS/2, Unix, and more. You can also browse the most popular files, and find downloading tips and tools. The JUMBO Shareware Archive at http://www.jumbo.com/ arranges the software by type or you can search for a particular file by name. With over 74,000 shareware and freeware programs, I'm sure you will be able to find something you "need" here. Just for you Mac users: the Association Bulletin Board web site not only has many, many files to download, but descriptions to go along with them. Located at http://associate.com/bbs_mug.html, you can search for a particular file, find out what's new, or browse the directories. The web page has a nice clean format that's easy to follow. It's simple to find anything that you want and need (aren't those the same thing?) There's is so much great software to download you might just have to invest in an additional hard drive! Until next week -- happy downloading. Here are direct links for AOL 3.0 users: AnswerMan AnswerMan Focus: more file sites! Life on the Internet-FTP Tucows shareware.com Jumbo The Association =*=*= THE WEEKLY FOCUS & CHAT =*=*= Every week, AnswerMan focuses on a particular facet of using the Internet. Here's what's going on this week. Live chat on Sunday, November 24, 6PM ET -- Introduction to file archives and FTP. Curious about FTP, the Internet's File Transfer Protocol? You can use FTP to access enormous archives of shareware and public domain software, graphics, electronic texts and much more. You can even use it to put your files online for others to find. During this hour, AnswerMan will talk -- and answer your questions -- on how to find and get files with the Internet. And, here are the Weekly Focus topics we'll be covering in the near future: Nov 25 - Dec 1: Internet for Travelers Dec 2 - Dec 8: Celebrating the Holidays on the Net Dec 9 - Dec 15: Use the Net to Find a Job Dec 16 - Dec 22: Facts about FAQs Dec 23 - Dec 29: Mailing Lists Here are direct links for AOL 3.0 users: Go to the AnswerMan Chat. AnswerMan Focus. =*=*= THE END =*=*= That's all for this week. Got comments about this newsletter? We want to hear them! Send 'em to AnswerMan. The e-mail address is "AnswerMan@aol.com". There are two easy ways to unsubscribe yourself from the AnswerMan mailing list. You can use either. #1: send an e-mail message -- To: LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM Subject: UNSUBSCRIBE Body: UNSUBSCRIBE ANSWERMAN #2: For AOL 3.0 users only: Double-click here then press "Unsubscribe". Copyright 1996 by America Online. All rights reserved. This newsletter stays crunchy in milk.