You're not kidding. Over here in the Old Country, it's been happening for years on the BBC, which is meant to be the bastion of non-commercial broadcasting.
I believe the PLoS came about because academics were basically getting sick, tired and fed-up of effectively being forced to buy back their own work.
Say I do publicly funded research and publish papers in a commercial journal. I have to publish otherwise I or my department / college will find it harer to secure future funding. The publishers of the relevant journals then profit by publishing my work.
The cost of buying the publications that I need in order to further my research may be crippling to my department or college library. Why should the publishing houses be profiting so from content which they do not pay for? What are they contributing that a not-for-profit organisation could not?
This is exploitation, pure and simple. The PLoS is long overdue.
Hang on a minute... Do we honestly believe that the music industry doesn't take into account the lost revenue from piracy in its pricing structure, at least to some degree?
Surely an industry of this size would build compensation for 'shrinkage' (i.e. theft) into its prices just as supermarkets do? And what of software companies for that matter?
What I want to know is, are we now going to see a Jetman game for the Xbox? It would be great if a character first seen on a 16k ZX Spectrum game in 1983 became Microsoft's mascot...
Dr. Matt...
Slashdot Mirror
There's a hardcore of home-tapers over there who have huge archives of BBC shows on MP3.
Dr. Matt...
You're not kidding. Over here in the Old Country, it's been happening for years on the BBC, which is meant to be the bastion of non-commercial broadcasting.
Dr. Matt...
Don't think it'll happen? Why'd do you think there are very few MiniDisc decks with digital outputs?
Dr. Matt...
Say I do publicly funded research and publish papers in a commercial journal. I have to publish otherwise I or my department / college will find it harer to secure future funding. The publishers of the relevant journals then profit by publishing my work.
The cost of buying the publications that I need in order to further my research may be crippling to my department or college library. Why should the publishing houses be profiting so from content which they do not pay for? What are they contributing that a not-for-profit organisation could not?
This is exploitation, pure and simple. The PLoS is long overdue.
Dr. Matt...
Hang on a minute... Do we honestly believe that the music industry doesn't take into account the lost revenue from piracy in its pricing structure, at least to some degree?
Surely an industry of this size would build compensation for 'shrinkage' (i.e. theft) into its prices just as supermarkets do? And what of software companies for that matter?
Dr. Matt.
What I want to know is, are we now going to see a Jetman game for the Xbox? It would be great if a character first seen on a 16k ZX Spectrum game in 1983 became Microsoft's mascot... Dr. Matt...