Those who take on the global industry that traps research behind paywalls are heroes, not thievesNever underestimate the power of one determined person. What Carole Cadwalladr has done to Facebook and big data, and Edward Snowden has done to the state security complex, Alexandra Elbakyan has done to the multibillion-dollar industry that traps knowledge behind paywalls. Sci-Hub, her pirate web scraper service, has done more than any government to tackle one of the biggest rip-offs of the modern era: the capture of publicly funded research that should belong to us all. Everyone should be free to learn; knowledge should be disseminated as widely as possible. No one would publicly disagree with these sentiments. Yet governments and universities have allowed the big academic publishers to deny these rights. Academic publishing might sound like an obscure and fusty affair, but it uses one of the most ruthless and profitable business models of any industry.The model was pioneered by the notorious conman Robert Maxwell. He realised that, because scientists need to be informed about all significant developments in their field, every journal that publishes academic papers can establish a monopoly and charge outrageous fees for the transmission of knowledge. He called his discovery “a perpetual financing machine”. He also realised that he could capture other people’s labour and resources for nothing. Governments funded the research published by his company, Pergamon, while... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2018-09-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A three month long dispute over the sale of digital books between Amazon.com Inc. and a leading independent book distributor has been resolved, both parties said Friday. Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2012-05-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Self-published writers who have an agent, or who use the DIY route to get a traditional deal... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Military history publisher Osprey has set up Digital Rights Management-free digital list aimed at... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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As if there weren’t enough distractions on the Web, captchas have long caused annoyance for both Internet consumers and content creators. Meredith Corp. found an alternative for weeding out bots and quantifying consumer interaction with Solve Media, a performance-based brand advertising business. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2012-05-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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When Google gave up on its One Pass paid content system last month, RR Donnelley’s Press+ strengthened its standing as the paid content platform of choice for a growing number of news publishers. However, with audience revenue models evolvi ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-05-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Long form digital journalism publisher and app developer The Atavist secured a round of funding worth $1.5 million. The first million was confirmed last week, while founder Evan Ratliff says the rest is committed and “will happen over the coming weeks.” Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2012-05-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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After a year of interviews and discussions, DeAgostini began a product test last year, and the company was encouraged enough by the results to launch a major presence in the U.S. beginning with a debut at BookExpo America (booth 2840) and building to a rollout of a full line next year. The... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-05-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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US publishers sales of ebooks and print books picked up the pace in 2011, a year when UK... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Simon & Schuster becomes the latest publisher to settle an antitrust claim by a team of states, while Macmillan, Penguin, and Apple fight on. Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2012-05-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Since Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Scientific American, both Macmillan brands, announced in fall 2010 that they were joining forces, Amanda Moon, senior editor of what is being called the Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux imprint, and Scientific American editor-in-chief Mariette... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-05-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Further pressure on publishers to fall in line over the use of open access models is set to come... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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NEW YORK — May 15, 2012 — At Adobe’s annual Digital Publishing Summit, Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced a series of groundbreaking new features for Adobe® Digital Publishing Suite (DPS) th ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-05-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The complaint says that Jobs was enlisted to sell high-ranking officials in the publisher’s parent company on the wisdom of the proposed pricing scheme. Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2012-05-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. (May 15, 2012) – ABC Interactive announced it is working with Adobe to audit metrics provided by Adobe’s Digital Publishing Suite, an industry-leading set of hosted services and viewer technologies that ena ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-05-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Substance drives engagement. The banner ad is dead. Those have been hot topics of late in the digital media world and continued to be at Internet Week's Digiday Conference on Monday. In front of a near capacity crowd, Vox Media CEO Jim Bankoff and Hearst editorial director of the men's... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2012-05-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Century has won a "hotly contested" five-way auction for a self-published title, Wool,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishers are hastening to embrace new partnerships, stronger direct-to-consumer programmes and... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The carrier refuses to comply with an order to allow a peek at the personal information of alleged ebook pirates. Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2012-05-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Harry Potter has joined the Kindle lending library.Amazon.com announced Thursday that on June 19, the ebook editions of J.K. Rowling's seven Potter novels will become part of the Kindle service available to Amazon Prime subscribers. Members can download a book for free once a month. Amazon's... Continue reading at Crains New York
[ Crains New York | 2012-05-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Campaigning body the Children's Media Foundation has launched an initiative to attract a... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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