Re: thought for the week

On Mon, 2 Aug 1999, Robert Cumbow <rcumbow[_at_]grahamdunn.com> wrote:
>
> On Sat, 31 Jul 1999, Lance Purple <lpurple[_at_]netcom.com> wrote:
> >
> > The copyright holder can't have it both ways either. U.S. law grants
> > them a monopoly on the right to copy the work, in order to encourage
> > them to PUBLISH the work, and not keep it secret. But that's exactly
> > what's happening to older works. The law clearly isn't doing its job,
> > and needs to be modified.
>
> Sometimes the market for the work does not justify the cost of making
> it available. That's got nothing to do with the work's "value", nor
> with "keeping it secret." It's a business decision that is made every
> day by publishers, of both copyrighted and public domain works. I am
> trying to imagine what "modification" of copyright law would force
> publishers to make available works of admitted value, when the cost
> of doing so would exceed the revenues from sales of the work.

I question the comment on "the cost of doing so (making works available) would exceed the revenues from sales of the work." We request copyright permission from publishers in order to make information available to our students. We do not assume this permission will be gratis - we expect (and by direct inference, our students) to pay for the privilege of having this information. It is only when a coyright fee is clearly out of line or when the publisher denies us permission that we will abandon any attempt to secure it. Unfortunately, at that point, we are out of the picture, and I cannot say how the students ultimately manage to obtain the information. You are free to surmise on your own.

Barb

Barbara Ruhmann
Text Buyer
UCD Bookstore
University of California
2828 Cowell Blvd.
Davis, CA 95616
Phone 530-752-5538
Fax 530-752-4791
e-mail brruhmann[_at_]ucdavis.edu
http://www-bookstore.ucdavis.edu/ Received on Tue Aug 03 1999 - 15:39:34 GMT