The contents of this CD-ROM will certainly be very interesting, as
its authors tell us.

May I stay (like other MMD members) very, very surprised, not to
say more, that the English title is so near the title of the famous
Bowers book ?  (mechanical replacing automatic).

When I saw it for the fist time, I exclaimed, "Wonderful, the Bowers
book will be on a CD-ROM."  (Which would be actually a good idea.
Who will do it?)

Not speaking about the legal field (and I am afraid Schott may have
some surprises trying to use in such a way the reputation of an already
published work), and the fact that it may be considered very unfair to
Q. D. Bowers, it will put considerable confusion in the future for the
general public, mechanical music fans and ... librarians.

I really think Schott should consider changing this title.  Why not say
"Dictionary", as in the German title?  Lexikon does not translate as
Encyclopedia.

I happen to write some books, and personally, I would react very
strongly if another publisher was using a very similar title of one of
my books ...

I hope this will find a quiet solution, especially to avoid confusion
in the future (even although one is a book, and the other one is a
CD-ROM).

Best regards,

Philippe Rouille  (Paris, France)
rouille@cnam.fr
http://www.cnam.fr/museum/musica_mecanica/

 [ The Oxford-Duden translating dictionary of 1990 says
 [   das Lexikon = (a) encyclopaedia; (b) dictionary; (c) lexicon
 [ Perhaps the CD-ROM could bear only the German title, "Lexikon
 [ Mechanische Musikautomaten".  -- Robbie