And that is who, exactly? Here in Cape Town, I loved having access to the University of Cape Town library. Unfortunately, even as an ex-student, the best access to that I can now get is if I pay R XXX a year to get access to 1 book for 1 week at a time. I don't have access to the library at the University of the Western Cape, but even if I did, due to the legacy of Apartheid, its pretty impoverished. The public libraries in CT are even worse. (I only get to read 'left' books like 'No Logo' if they appear in the bookshop where a friend of mine works, or someone scans them and puts them online)
MIT's courseware will probably be difficult to access, etc. etc. - but possibly, just possibly, with a bit of hacking it can be made useful. And then the useful stuff can be squirrelled off onto the far corners of the Internet (though no doubt that would be against the license agreement). I don't hold up much hope, but its better than nothing.
This, and the pressure on science journals to put issues online after a given period (e.g. 6 months) is a *good thing* in my opinion. If only something similar could happen to humanities texts - then maybe I could join in the quoting spree that you and Yoshie indulge in.
Peter P.S. maybe I should go and register bitterautodidact.com right around now. :) -- Peter van Heusden <pvh at egenetics.com> NOTE: I do not speak for my employer, Electric Genetics "Criticism has torn up the imaginary flowers from the chain not so that man shall wear the unadorned, bleak chain but so that he will shake off the chain and pluck the living flower." - Karl Marx, 1844 k*256^2+2083 OpenPGP: 1024D/0517502B : DE5B 6EAA 28AC 57F7 58EF 9295 6A26 6A92 0517 502B