Google Print may or may not be the answer, but resisting the Web on the grounds of copyright won't help the publishing industry thrive....Google is trying to get book publishers into seeing things its way: The Internet opens up their products to new markets and new customers because it frees them from the constraints of physically reproducing work. They should get there as soon as possible. If they don't, they'll be left behind in a world where we are all online....Now, no one in the book business argues --with a straight face, any way-- that the industry isn't in need of dire, substantive change and reform. So Google's approach --to create a situation where ideas and material not on the Web cease to exist-- may actually have the effect the company wants. Just as Napster spawned --indirectly-- iTunes, Google Print may start someone in the book business changing how books are reproduced and distributed, bringing in a Web-based element that's yet to be embraced. Because Google is right: It is inevitable that everything that can be on the Web will be on the Web.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 8/19/2005 12:25:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
