"You Can't Stop Us": Walking Down a Dark Internet Lane
- by Renee Roberts
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Incredibly, even though "Discantus" stole millions of listings, no problemo, all is forgiven, he is back in business on ABE, selling print--on-demand titles from other universities and government agencies.
After much protest, my dissertation was finally removed from ABE. The last time I checked, the USA database of doctoral dissertations appears to have been expurgated from "Discantus'" offerings as well. "Discantus" is down to a measly 26,312 listings. However, if you or anybody you know deposited a dissertation with UMI, you may wish to consider contacting them and explicitly asking that they restrict the publication of your dissertation, unless you want it to be exploited in the same manner as mine was. They are selling and reselling these materials commercially and they do not care if someone else copies and sells them too. If you want a dissertation published, there are many excellent ways in which to do that on your own.
Moral black holes are not confined to Internet book sales. As a postscript, a number of years ago I agreed to sub for part of a year in a high school programming class. I was teaching adolescent males C++. When I got to the class, I discovered that in the absence of any teacher who knew anything at all about computers, the boys had already taken over the school's network, including the root administrator login, and had set up remote access to the computers through other machines. They were using them and a series of other UNIX boxes to jump around and hack into other computers, and download a wide variety of wildly inappropriate materials, including safecracking tools that enabled them to break into other accounts.
When I confronted my young charges, I was told "you can't stop us." They thought that on the Internet no civilized rules or morality applied. The next morning, when they arrived, they discovered that I had disabled the entire computer network. Every single cable connecting a keyboard, modem, printer, and computer had been removed and was locked up. I passed out C++ textbooks and told them that I would be perfectly happy reading about programming for the rest of the semester.
One of these students eventually went to M.I.T. and became a tech support guy; another was arrested for breaking into computers and stealing people's bank accounts; and a third perfected his skills and went on to found Napster. There are probably a few of my ex-students selling books on the Internet, running major websites, and developing scholarly databases.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("Martinus Luther") to His Friend the Theologian Gerhard Wiskamp ("Gerardo Xantho Lampadario"). $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: An Exceptionally Fine Copy of Austenís Emma: A Novel in Three Volumes. $40,000 - $60,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Presentation Copy of Ernest Hemmingwayís A Farewell to Arms for Edward Titus of the Black Mankin Press. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript Signed Integrally for "The Songs of Pooh," by Alan Alexander. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript of "Three Fragments from Gˆtterd‰mmerung" by Richard Wagner. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Preliminary Artwork, for the First Edition of Snow Crash. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("T.R. Malthus") to Economist Nassau Senior on Wealth, Labor and Adam Smith. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides Finely Bound by Michael Wilcox. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: First Edition of Lewis and Clark: Travels to the Source of the Missouri River and Across the American Continent to the Pacific Ocean. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Artwork for the First Edition of Neal Stephenson's Groundbreaking Novel Snow Crash. $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: A Complete Set Signed Deluxe Editions of King's The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("John Adams") to James Le Ray de Chaumont During the Crucial Years of the Revolutionary War. $8,000 - $12,000.
Sotheby’s Book Week December 9-17, 2025
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Hooke, Robert. Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses. London: James Allestry for the Royal Society, 1667. $12,000 to $15,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Chappuzeau, Samuel. The history of jewels, first edition in English. London: T.N. for Hobart Kemp, 1671. $12,000 to $18,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Sowerby, James. Exotic Mineralogy, containing his most realistic mineral depictions, London: Benjamin Meredith, 1811, Arding and Merrett, 1817. $5,000 to $7,000.
Heritage Auctions Rare Books Signature Auction December 15, 2025
Heritage, Dec. 15: John Donne. Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death. London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.
Heritage, Dec. 15: Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
Heritage, Dec. 15: F. Scott Fitzgerald. Tender is the Night. A Romance.
Heritage, Dec. 15: Jerry Thomas. How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant's Companion, Containing Clear and Reliable Directions for Mixing All the Beverages Used in the United States…
![<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/8caddaea-4c1f-47a7-9455-62f53af36e3f.jpg "<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.")
