Michael: Instead of using emotive words like "shame" and "cynical", perhaps you might address the issues I have raised:
a) who is actually doing the giving? b) the "free now, charge later" philosophy behind this scheme. c) use of non proprietary/open source software for accessing the materials d) financial assistance for academic contributors from countries of the South. To use your own emotive, I just don't see the "sacrifice" involved. Regards Alan Alan Story Kent Law School University of Kent Canterbury Kent U.K CT2 7NS. [email protected] 44 (0)1227 823316 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Kay" <[email protected]> To: "'Alan Story'" <[email protected]>; <[email protected]> Cc: "Istvan Rev" <[email protected]>; "Anna Maria Balogh" <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2001 11:11 AM Subject: Re: FOS Newsletter Excerpts > It is a shame that you should write this in such a cynical tone. Yes the > publishers do stand to gain in the long term, but at last they are willing > to "sacrifice" something at least . I have been working with them for some > time on exactly these sorts of projects and they do realise that unless they > do something to "look better" that their battle will be even harder. > Naturally they are more than concerned about the current debate and their > futures. But at the end of the day, they are now coughing with excellent > deals for countries that our network serves - the financially disadvantaged. > And just for the record not all publishers are inherently evil people - > believe it or not. > > Michael Kay > Director eIFL (Soros Foundation Network) > http://www.eifl.net >
