[PNWHEALTH] Interesting idea: steal (free and legal) health, nutrition and exercise content

[Laura Larsson]

Friends:

Many of you know that there is a group of people who share information 
via sources like alt.bin.e-book - some legal and some not so legal.

Maybe content on alt-bin.e-book has some kind of special cachet but as I 
was looking to see what kinds of things were available in the books 
section (I am a librarian, after all and was curious), I noticed that 
someone had posted a huge number of freely-available health-related 
documents that they had collected from FDA, CDC, NIH and other agencies 
concerned with population health. It was available in pdf format so it's 
easy to read on a PC, handheld or laptop - useful since PDF keeps the 
original formatting.

That got me thinking. Someone has the right idea. Take government 
information and put it up on the Internet in a place that is 
theoretically not legit and where people will download it out of 
curiousity - and maybe even read it thinking they are "getting away" 
with it.

It boggled my mind that someone had taken the time to post all this good 
information in the one place where people who ordinarily wouldn't read 
this kind of information could "steal" it. Maybe aggregating lots of 
freely available health information and make it forbidden will make it 
more desirable.

I wonder whose idea this was? It seems to be working. I downloaded some 
nutrition content, some exercise content and am happily examining it - 
even though I could get it off the Web from the appropriate agency.

I couldn't help but chuckle at this method of reaching a new market.

Laura
-- 
Keep well and connected,

Laura Larsson
Information Content Manager
Digital Assets Manager
Online Learning Developer
Information Appliance/PDA Trainer

Clinical Faculty
Health Services, SPHCM
University of Washington
larsson at u.washington.edu
List Manager: PHNUTR-L, PHSW, PHNURSES, PNWHEALTH, HSR-L, BIRTH23MH, 
PH-INFO, BRIGHTFUTURES-WA
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"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read 
and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."  Alvin Toffler