Re: A Little Linguistic Playground

On Sun, 28 Mar 1999, Joseph P. Riolo <riolo[_at_]voicenet.com> wrote:
>
> On Fri, 26 Mar 1999, Barbara Ruhmann <brruhmann[_at_]ucdavis.edu> wrote:
> >
> > It can be noted with Dover, however, that the price of their books, as
> > compared to the prices of other books, is considerably less (esp in
> > their "Thrift Series"). This could be construed as cost of materials
> > and marketing only...
> >
> > <snip>
> >
> > With Project Gutenberg and other e-text pages, the material is free,
> > but to obtain a hard copy, one must use one's own materials and
> > resources - ie, computer, printer, paper and time. These are usually
> > not "free".
>
> The term "free" has two distinct meanings and people who are not
> aware of the fine differences are bound to be confused. "Free" can
> be understood in terms of freedom and cost.
>
> When public domain materials are said to be free, it means that the
> individuals are not subject to many restrictions as in case of
> copyrighted works. They may have to pay in order to acquire the
> public domain materials. But, once they have them, they are at
> liberty to do almost anything to the materials.
>
> "Free" as in the expression "free license" means that people do not
> have to pay for the additional cost known as the royalty. Yet,
> they are still subject to the terms and conditions as outlined in
> the license and also the copyright law.
>
> It is the freedom that some decopyrighters care more than the
> profit and/or royalty.

I am aware of the difference. The following is the paragraph in Lance Purple's msg to which I responded:

> If the works are freely available, then of course anyone can try to
> charge money for them. Dover Books already charges money for copies
> of public domain works; at the same time that Project Gutenberg is
> giving them away for free. I don't see why a "decopyrighter" would
> object to this.

Dover makes hardcopies of public domain works. Project Gutenberg does not. If you want a copy of a public domain work, and Dover has published it, you may buy it from them, with a nice cover and binding, and that's what you're paying for. To obtain a hard copy of a work on Project Gutenberg, you pay for the materials to make it so. If you don't mind sitting in front of your computer screen, you can read e-texts on Project Gutenberg without paying for copy. But you're still having to cover the costs of computer, electricity, modem line, etc., which are inherent to accessing Project Gutenberg.

Barb

Barbara Ruhmann
Text Buyer
UCD Bookstore
University of California, Davis
Phone 530-752-5538
Fax 530-752-4791
http://www-bookstore.ucdavis.edu/
<brruhmann[_at_]ucdavis.edu> Received on Tue Mar 30 1999 - 16:47:14 GMT