Sarah,
thank you for your answer: I agree that former non-digital piracy does
not justify digital piracy. What I had written was just aimed at not
demonizing too much the piracy potential of digital tools, but it is
true that it must be addressed.
Same with plagiarism, btw: people have probably plagiarized for various
purposes (academic career, passing exams, making money) ever since they
started to write (though the notion of plagiarism is irrelevant for the
time preceding the rise of the concept of authorship, when "centone" was
an accepted practice, for instance). This doesn't mean that digital
plagiarism should be ignored, but it does mean that some of the present
catastrophe writing and attitude about it in academic circles is
probably not the best way to tackle the issue either.
Re your answer to Sharon:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Sharon, I think you're exactly right. Books and journals sold in digital,
>downloadable form could be priced without the cost of paper, printing,
binding,
and distribution, and probably with a smaller discount to the retailer. And
authors could get royalties, and publishers could receive a reasonable return
on their investment.
One of the big forces working against this is the academic tenure system, which
at most institutions recognizes only printed books and journal articles as part
of one's bibliography when applying for tenure. It would take a widespread change
in academe as well as publishers to enable meaningful movement toward digitized
original works.
One interesting solution is online publishers, who offer the possibility
to either download a text in digitized form, or to order it on paper. A
few months ago, David Warlick mentioned - I can't remember if here or if
on the WWWEDU mailing-list or both - http://www.lulu.com/, who do that.
They print and bind on demand only, thus cutting the storage costs.
Authors set the price, on the basis of an equation comprising fixed
costs (price per page + binding), what they want to earn per copy, plus
a 20% commission for the publisher - to which postage gets added (see
http://www.lulu.com/help/node/view/33 , then "Step 5: Price & Finish")
But when I mentioned this possibility to some friends in academe, they
objected that for career purposes, the peer-reviewing would be lacking,
whereas it is vital for career purposes.
On the other hand, though, Lulu allows authors to buy their books at a
discounted price (without the author's commission) and postage can be
reduced for bulk shipping. This would enable academics to order copies
at a more reasonable price, and send them for peer-reviewing, perhaps.
cheers
Claude
--
Claude Almansi
Castione, Switzerland
claude.almansi_at_bluewin.ch
http://www.adisi.ch - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADISI
http://www.digitaldivide.net/profile/Claude
http://www.digitaldivide.net/blog/claude
http://www.digitaldivide.net/community/languages
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