[WEB4LIB] RE: Article - "Post-Tasini: Pity the Librarians"

[Walt_Crawford at notes.rlg.org]

I've been staying out of this, but Rich's comment forces a response:

Tasini and the other plaintiffs have always made it clear that they were
ready and willing to negotiate fees for blanket clearances, and to set up
clearinghouses for that purpose.

The NYTimes (et al), having made its money licensing material it didn't
have the rights to license (according to the decision), responded by saying
"Oh look, those mean authors are forcing us to remove the material."

Not a hint of negotiation, just the act that would most damage libraries,
users, free-lancers, aggregators--everybody but the publishers, actually.

Well, heck Freelance writers average something like $7,000 in writing
income a year. Clearly, they're greedy capitalistic pigs, not like those
altruists at the NYTimes.

There's a clear villain in this piece, I think--at least if you believe
that people deserve to be paid for their work. That villain isn't Tasini.

-walt crawford, speaking only for myself-