[WEB4LIB] RE: "Piracy is Progressive Taxation"

[Joseph Murphy]

> Commercial publishers are not all one flavor either: Baen has its free 
> library available to anyone who cares to take a look, with an 
> explanation by author Eric Flint on why he thinks the free library is 
> a good thing.
> See http://www.baen.com/library/
> Also note that Baen's backlist sales have INCREASED since the free 
> library went up.
> Lynne

Yes, but there's a significant difference between the publisher putting 
material online for publicity purposes, and either free but 
unauthorized file sharing or for-profit piracy. I think Baen's doing 
the right thing in every way, and has the numbers to prove it, but 
let's remember that one of their motives is profit.

Publishers like O'Reilly, Baen, and the National Academies Press ( 
http://www.nap.edu/ ) also have a major benefit over the music (and to 
an extent, video) publishers: good e-book technology isn't ubiquitous 
yet. They can take a strategic view, and experiment with economic 
models and building brand recognition while there's still time. (And 
kudos to them. When the technology matures, they should be kings of the 
hill.)

It's interesting to note, though, that I can't easily find a clear 
rights statement on any of these sites. None of them make clear how 
they'd feel about me grabbing these files and putting them on my own 
server. Good candidates for Creative Commons licenses... (as, I might 
point out in an attempt to stay on-topic, are a number of libraries' 
digitization projects).
http://www.creativecommons.org

-Joe Murphy
Librarian and Technology Consultant
Library and Information Services
Kenyon College
murphyjm at kenyon.edu
740/427-5120