library software dependency

[George Porter]

I am struck by a variety of issues involved in the DMCA-related arrest of
Dmitry Sklyarov.  Perhaps the most stunning was the realization that
encouraging libraries to take an advocacy stance on the issues, ala
<http://boycottadobe.com/>, would cripple services which many academic
libraries currently spend hundreds of thousands to millions of US $/year to
provide to their clientele, primarily ejournals.

The point was brought home to me this week when trying to configure an
out-of-the-box notebook computer.  After a downloading a variety of OS
software tweaks and upgrades, the first application I went to install was
SciFinder Scholar, from the Chemical Abstracts Service.  I received a
warning message, during the install process, that Adobe Acrobat had not been
detected and, therefore, all documentation would be inaccessible.

Are there any other single source applications/functions on which libraries
have unwittingly become totally dependent?

George S. Porter
Sherman Fairchild Library of Engineering & Applied Science
Caltech, 1-43
Pasadena, CA  91125-4300
Telephone (626) 395-3409 Fax (626) 431-2681