🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <173@bnr-fos.UUCP> hwt@bnr-public.UUCP (Henry Troup) writes:
>In article <1236@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu> rezac@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu writes:
>>-- 
>>Additionally, the OED is, I'm sure, not public domain (or even shareware for 
>>that matter).
>>
>
>I remember recently reading a review of a commercial product that is
>the OED - but only the OED, not the supplements.  The OED itself is
>quite old, having been published before 1950.  Given the state of
>copyright law at that time, I think it has fallen into the public
>domain.
> 
>The New OED is in preparation at Waterloo.  Anyone there have any facts?

There seems to be a lot of confusion surrounding the OED and the New OED.
Let me try to clear a few things up.  First, a disclaimer:  I am not
associated with either Oxford University Press (OUP) or the UW Centre
for the New OED (UWCNOED).  I did however attend the recent "Information 
in Text" conference jointly sponsored by OUP and UWCNOED.  The information
I present here is derived from that conference.

First some background:  OUP approached several institutions with regard to
modernizing the OED.  They hired a company to type in the complete OED
(the original 12 volumes plus the four-volume Supplement).  The University
of Waterloo won the contract to create the software and organize the data.
Work has been in progress since 1984 and is almost complete.

An important thing to realize is that OUP owns the copyright to the complete
text of both the old and new versions of the OED.  UW owns rights to the
software it developed, but not the text.  Currently only researchers at UW
and a few selected universities are allowed access to the text of the OED
in computerized form, and only for limited research purposes.  So, no, it is
not possible to "ftp" the OED, and never will be.

The computerization of the OED has led to the preparation of the "New" or
"Second" edition.  The original OED has been merged with the Supplement and
about 5000 or so new entries added.  A lot of revision has been done.  The
Second Edition will be printed in twenty (20!) volumes in the style of the
Supplement.  It should be available at the end of March, 1989, for something
like US$2000 or 1500 pounds sterling.  

There are also plans to bring out a CD-ROM version of the Second Edition in
1990 or 1991.  A CD-ROM version of the first edition seems to have been
available at one time, but I don't know its status right now.

Hope this clears up some of the confusion.

--
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Eric Giguere                    268 Phillip St. #CL-46, Waterloo, Ont. N2L 6G9
jyegiguere@lotus.waterloo.edu   (519) 746-0792
GIGUERE@WATCSG.BITNET           "No, that's not how you pronounce it..."