When Robin Newton identified himself:

>As an editor on the 20th Century section of the new edition of Grove.

I couldn't resist responding to this comment:

>The online issue is, I believe, yet to be fully resolved, but at present
>the aim is to have a range of costs and options depending on whether you
>are a private individual, a university, a company and so on.  We hope it
>will be plausible to opt for a certain quantity of online time so rather
>than having unlimited access for a month, it will be possible to have x
>hours time online which can be spent as and when it is needed.

If Macmillan is already banking their fee structure for on-line research,
they will be sorely disappointed even before the doors open.

Look at other Internet fee-for-service databases.  Consumer Reports has
fewer hits than some personal webpages.  Westlaw and Lexis fees have
plummeted.  They used to limit their clientele to lawyers.  Now they use
telemarketers to sell to anyone for almost any price.  Other services have
found that selling advertising space is more profitable than charging the
user.  Newspapers have been forced by their competition to offer more of
their information on line free than what they charge for the limited
hardcopy edition.

Some competition is legitimate.  Some is not.  As quickly as countries
update intellectual property law users find ways around them.  It is hard
to enforce these laws across state boundaries, more so national frontiers.
Then there are the rogue nations.

The global marketplace has gone from dog-eat-dog to the devouring of
megacorporations overnight.  We don't even know who will end up owning
Grooves Electronic Dictionary and Macmillan.  "Do unto others...".

Buy the hardcover edition at the prepublication price or even right after
publication.  Then turn to the traveler sitting next to you and ask what
he paid.  Eat your heart out that you didn't wait a week, two weeks...

Andrew E. Carlan
Word 97 will count the size of the Nielsen article!!