Dear Joyce, I was recently contacted with a similar offer by the same publisher to write a chapter in a book . They wanted me to sign-off my copyright to them. I declined as I wanted to have the right to re-use my own material with other people, not necessarily those with the money to buy the whole book.
A friend of mine, who is a very active lawyer in the field of open licensing, was also approached. Like you, she put the question to the OER list we belong to. Opinion was divided. Some thought it would be good to have a chapter on open licensing in a book for people who probably have not heard about it, even if this meant abdicating from her rights. Others were adamant such a move would mean discrediting what she believes in. My friend wrote back to the publisher explaining the options of alternative licensing and how they could still profit from their investment and gave the same arguments Wayne did in a recent mail to you. They did not accept them. She chose not to write the chapter for them but published one through people who understood her point and were willing to be flexible. After all, she had experienced (like me) the situation of having to ask and wait for publishers' permission to make copies of her own resources to give to students in her own class. Here is a post (among many others) that have started to appear in my field http://jasonrenshaw.typepad.com/jason_renshaws_web_log/2009/08/elt-authors-and-the-money-they-earn.html and http://jasonrenshaw.typepad.com/jason_renshaws_web_log/2010/09/your-place-your-space-make-sure-you-read-the-fine-print-.html I believe that as educators we should inform ourselves so as to have the authority, freedom and choice to decide on the kind of rights we want to apply to resources we author and produce. We should also have more options regarding how our published work will be distributed without being forced into a one-way agreement. There is an excellent paper here, which gives you a good overview of what open licensing means. Permission granted: open licensing for educational resources http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/section?content=a909092757&fulltext=713240928 An activist's view http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/jul/31/comment.drm http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2010/oct/05/free-online-content-cory-doctorow IMHO, what is important is to understand how the Internet works, how to keep the access and flow open, have the choice to decide and always remember that the price you pay for comfort is your freedom. My two cents of real. Warm regards, Barbara -- Barbara Dieu http://barbaradieu.com http://beespace.net -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]
