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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Facebook may be the biggest social network on the planet, but social ad targeting firm 33Across says it now has the distinction of managing the world’s largest social and interest graph. The company was set to announce today that it has acquired San Francisco-based publishing sharing tool Tynt,... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2012-01-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Cornerstone marketing director Claire Round will leave the company to join HarperCollins as the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The rules of the game dictate that any effort to move into America’s large and lucrative education publishing industry must be swaddled in pieties, and the electronic textbook initiative announced by Apple last week was no exception. Apple, which is normally willing to state that customers will... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2012-01-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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HarperCollins group digital director David Roth-Ey has been appointed executive publisher of 4th... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishers may be falling out of love with apps, but they need to fall in love with their... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Polar Mobile, a digital media platform provider that builds apps for some of the biggest media companies, today announced it has secured an additional $6 million in funding. The new round, led by growth equity firm Georgian Partners, joins more than ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-01-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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For an indie publisher to launch its first line with a $300 art book takes guts and vision, but that’s what Ammo Books’ founders Paul Norton and Steve Crist did in 2006 when they published 3,000 copies of Gonzo by Hunter S. Thompson and sold out in less than a year. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-01-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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William Shawcross, whose official biography of the Queen Mother was published by Macmillan in... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A group of children's authors has formed a collective called Electrik Inc to publish their... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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vjoon®, a leading provider of cross-media publishing platforms and a global Adobe Digital Publishing Suite (DPS) reseller, announces that vjoon customers such as Condé Nast, National Geographic, Reader’s Digest, Red Bull, ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-01-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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iBooks Author is a free Mac app designed to let authors and publishers easily create multimedia-rich e-textbooks for the iBooks 2 app. Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2012-01-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Children's publishers remain confident that the printed book will be the dominant format for... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Classics publishers are refreshing their editions of modernist authors James Joyce and Virginia... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Independent publishers have reported a stronger Christmas than in 2010, with Waterstones showing... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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IPC Media magazine Marie Claire has appointed Toby Evans as publisher, from his position as associate publisher on woman's weekly title Look. Continue reading at Media Week
[ Media Week | 2012-01-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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American book chain Barnes & Noble is reportedly seeking bids for its publishing arm Sterling... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Barnes & Noble Inc. has put its Sterling Publishing business up for sale, say people familiar with the situation, signaling a likely end to its decades-long involvement in the publishing of its own books. Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2012-01-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Strong ebook sales over the festive period compensated for the decline in physical sales,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Meredith Corporation is acquiring the assets of Disney Publishing Worldwide’s FamilyFun. Beginning in March 2012, FamilyFun and its associated special interest publications, as well as Toyhopper and other magazine apps, will be published by Meredith. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2012-01-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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E-books and audio books on the Web site of the New York Public Library. Publishers are waiting for an industrywide approach to e-lending to gel. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2011-12-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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