This is quite serious, not an April Fool's Joke. I am looking for full text FREE (ok probably infringing copyright but not through a pay-service) copies of biographies of King Charles II of England (1660-85), particularly ones that are out of print. I know that _Royalty Restored_ is online, and have found it several places so please not that one. I also know that there are several in Questia (wonderful but pay service) but they intentionally make it very difficult to download. There are hundreds of pages out about the guy but I am looking for actual books. I'd also like any other books about the 1660s in England.
Point being that there are a lot of humanities resources are are still not easy to come by online...
Regardless of whether Contentville has the rights, perhaps the question is what next?
Clearly, there are policies in place, backed by tradition and University codes, that allow certain groups to make use of dissertations. Most people probably signed it away, not thinking that there was much if any chance that it would *ever* be read or duplicated. If someone had to go to the trouble of requesting a copy from the University itself, chances are slim that anyone but the most avid researcher would bother.
On the other hand, many commercially available books started out as people's dissertations, simply spruced up for general consumption. They are making a small profit, and increasing their professional prestige by having a book published early in their careers. But how many publishers will buy rehashed dissertations if they know that anyone can get it online? How much will this service decrease the incentives of academic publishers?
Some dissertations, especially engineering and scientific fields, can be very valuable. What if a student knows that their writing will be worth a lot of money in the future, and refuses to sign the agreement. If someone has already paid a small fortune to attend the uni, what will happen when they now have to surrender a valuable document in order to get their degree. And what if the Universities then broker it over the net themselves? Only a tradition has prevented such whoelsale exploitation, but what will stop them in the future?
If Contentville makes a profit, who knows who else will spring out to make money off the backs of students.
So everyone who researches in a public library should automatically lose any rights to sell anything they wrote/created that was influenced by the materials in the public library?
If I, a non-student, decide to write an article, and do some research in the local library, should I forgo my rights to payment just because that library was publicly funded? Even though as a taxpayer I paid for the right to use it?
What about the internet then? Should anyone who researches on the internet lose all of their rights to payment too, since hey, the net was publicly funded and is now communally funded?
Methinks someone needs to learn the difference between research and writing.
Ah, but I recall all too well that my mother's dissertation (available on Contentville) was printed by Kinko's. It was the first time I ever saw their flexible binding strips in action, those were the days!
So clearly they are not getting their material *exclusively* from Bell and Howard.
Slashdot Mirror
Point being that there are a lot of humanities resources are are still not easy to come by online...
Thanks in advance if anyone finds anything!
Juliann
Regardless of whether Contentville has the rights, perhaps the question is what next? Clearly, there are policies in place, backed by tradition and University codes, that allow certain groups to make use of dissertations. Most people probably signed it away, not thinking that there was much if any chance that it would *ever* be read or duplicated. If someone had to go to the trouble of requesting a copy from the University itself, chances are slim that anyone but the most avid researcher would bother. On the other hand, many commercially available books started out as people's dissertations, simply spruced up for general consumption. They are making a small profit, and increasing their professional prestige by having a book published early in their careers. But how many publishers will buy rehashed dissertations if they know that anyone can get it online? How much will this service decrease the incentives of academic publishers? Some dissertations, especially engineering and scientific fields, can be very valuable. What if a student knows that their writing will be worth a lot of money in the future, and refuses to sign the agreement. If someone has already paid a small fortune to attend the uni, what will happen when they now have to surrender a valuable document in order to get their degree. And what if the Universities then broker it over the net themselves? Only a tradition has prevented such whoelsale exploitation, but what will stop them in the future? If Contentville makes a profit, who knows who else will spring out to make money off the backs of students.
So everyone who researches in a public library should automatically lose any rights to sell anything they wrote/created that was influenced by the materials in the public library? If I, a non-student, decide to write an article, and do some research in the local library, should I forgo my rights to payment just because that library was publicly funded? Even though as a taxpayer I paid for the right to use it? What about the internet then? Should anyone who researches on the internet lose all of their rights to payment too, since hey, the net was publicly funded and is now communally funded? Methinks someone needs to learn the difference between research and writing.
Ah, but I recall all too well that my mother's dissertation (available on Contentville) was printed by Kinko's. It was the first time I ever saw their flexible binding strips in action, those were the days! So clearly they are not getting their material *exclusively* from Bell and Howard.