AEGiS-MISC: (POZ) News-Wire Nunsense--AEGIS vs. Reuters: A website fight

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

(POZ) News-Wire Nunsense--AEGIS vs. Reuters: A website fight

POZ Magazine, October 1997, page 34; 349 West 12th Street, New York, NY 10014-1721

Once upon a time, Sister Mary Elizabeth, the decade-long force behind AEGIS (AIDS Education Global Information System), had a good thing going with Reuters. AEGIS--the largest HIV database in the world--posted the international news wire's daily AIDS-related articles for free to thousands of people, many geographically isolated, on its e-mail address list, bulletin board, and website. Then, last May, Reuters reneged, informing the Episcopalian nun that AEGIS could no longer redistribute its articles and must delete all archived stories. But, they told Sister Mary Elizabeth, who runs the site on a shoe-string budget from her mobile home in Southern California, she could take commercial subscription for access to three stories a day--for a monthly fee of $1,500.

Enter webmaster Marty Howard, who used his own HIV homepage to launch an email "zap" campaign. Stricken by strikes, Reuters promised to let AEGIS resume posting its news for free. And they did--with one exception: The Reuters Health Information Service (RHIS) articles. "It's the RHIS articles that have the most value to PWAs, since they're by medical writers and address specific medical issues," Sister Mary Elizabeth said. "It was my belief that Reuters was going to give us full access to its AIDS-related news, but I don't think it's going to happen." The New York Times is the only other media outlet that withholds its AIDS news from AEGIS--it wants $100 per article.

With nearly half a million documents AEGIS gets about 26,000 hits a month. Strike a key: http://www.aegis.com

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Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 1997. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.

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