In January 2001, Adobe launched the Acrobat eBook Reader (for free) and
the Adobe Content Server (for a fee). The Acrobat eBook Reader was
meant to read PDF files of copyrighted books, while adding notes and
bookmarks, getting the book covers in a personal library, and browsing
a dictionary. The Adobe Content Server was intended for publishers and
distributors for the packaging, protection, distribution, and sale of
copyrighted books in PDF format, while managing their access with DRM
(Digital Rights Management), according to instructions given by the
copyright holder, for example allowing or not the printing and loan of
ebooks. In May 2003, the Acrobat eBook Reader (2nd version) merged with
the Acrobat Reader (5th version) to become the Adobe Reader (beginning
with the 6th version).
February 2001 > A quote by Russon Wooldridge, founder of NEF (Net of
French Studies)
Russon Wooldridge is a professor at the Department of French Studies in
the University of Toronto, Canada, and the founder of the NEF (Net des
Etudes Françaises / Net of French Studies) in May 2000. He wrote in
February 2001: "My research, conducted once in an ivory tower, is now
almost exclusively done through local or remote collaborations. (...)
All my teaching makes the most of internet resources (web and email):
the two common places for a course are the classroom and the website of
the course, where I put all course materials. I have published all my
research data of the last 20 years on the web (re-edition of books,
articles, texts of old dictionaries as interactive databases, treaties
from the 16th century, etc.). I publish proceedings of symposiums, I
publish a journal, I collaborate with French colleagues by publishing
online in Toronto what they can't publish online at home." (NEF
Interview)