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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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Thu, 30/06/2011 - 13:12 Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker is set to publish a book of his song lyrics with Faber. The book, entitled Mother, Brother, Lover: Selected Lyrics, was bought by Fabers editorial director of fiction, Lee Brackstone, and editor... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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IPC Media claims its email marketing has been "revolutionised" by a new technology platform that has led newsletter subscriptions to increase almost 60% in a single year. Continue reading at Media Week
[ Media Week | 2011-06-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Wed, 29/06/2011 - 09:21 The literary agency representing Barack Obama has become the latest to move into ebook publishing but stresses it is not trying to compete with publishers. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Tue, 28/06/2011 - 11:18 Booktrust has suspended the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, Booktrust Early Years Award and Booktrust Teenage Prize for 2011, blaming funding cuts. The book charity said it hopes to bring them "back with a bang next year", so... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Oakland-based book publicist Lorna Garano has opened an eponymous speakers bureau with business partner Peter Handel, who also has a track record in public relations for Bay Area authors and publishers. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-06-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#track record
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Mon, 27/06/2011 - 08:34 A green charity offering books for free aims to open an outlet in every town in the UK, and has called on publishers to donate titles. The Booksellers Association has come out in support of the programme run by Healthy Planet,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Wed, 22/06/2011 - 10:10 Publishers will play a bigger and more complicated role, but only if the link between the author and reader is "reconfigured", was among the conclusions from a panel of chief executives at Publishers Launch London. John... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Wed, 22/06/2011 - 09:31 Literary agents who publish their clients' work were likened to foxes raiding the hen house at the Publishers Launch London conference held in London yesterday (Tuesday). Peter Cox, agent and founder of the agency Redhammer,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 23/06/2011 - 07:26 Vintage Publishing has released the first ebooks from Nigella Lawson, with her Kitchen and Nigella Express books now available in digital format. Lawson's Nigella Quick Collection app has also been updated with 30... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Tue, 21/06/2011 - 08:00 Ladybird is to publish a range of Hello Kitty pre-school titles, having acquired UK rights from Fluid World, UK agent for Hello Kitty brand owner Sanrio. Ladybird will publish a range of formats for 0-3-year-olds,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Mon, 20/06/2011 - 14:31 John Locke has become the first self-published author to sell more than one million ebooks through Amazon. The author used Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing platform to publish and sell his titles. He joins Stieg Larsson,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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As awesome as Kindle Direct Publishing is, it will be crushed by spam if Amazon doesn't take some action to control the amount of junk titles being dumped on it. Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2011-06-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Caroline Horn Publication Date: Fri, 17/06/2011 - 07:59 The Seven Stories centre for children's books in Newcastle is to benefit from a £750,000 endowment donated by the Enid Blyton Trust for Children, following a decision to close the Enid Blyton Trust and donate its funds to one... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 17/06/2011 - 10:52 Century has acquired world rights to a book by comedian Frank Skinner, set to feature columns selected from those he has published in the Times newspaper in the past two years, plus some fresh and previously unseen... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Fri, 17/06/2011 - 14:40 The world's largest publishers have begun growing again after weathering the global recession over the past three years, with Pearson once again emerging as top dog. According to the annual ranking of global publishing... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Thu, 16/06/2011 - 11:39 The Association of Authors Agents will not expel those agents who have begun publishing their clients' work, after a meeting of agents held last night came to the view that it was not a conflict of interest. The issue was... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Tue, 14/06/2011 - 15:12 Ladybird Books is to publish a series of pre-school children's books in collaboration with singer and TV star Peter Andre. Publishing director Eric Huang, who bought world English language rights, excluding North America,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Tue, 14/06/2011 - 15:10 Lonely Planet has appointed Sheema Mookherjee as publisher for its Indian publishing arm. Mookerherjee's most recent role was looking after HarperCollins India's non-fiction and reference lists, and she started work at... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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WS Publishing Group, formerly known as Wedding Solutions Publishing, is moving to Perseus Distribution for sales and distribution in the U.S. and Canada as of July 1. Best known for its wedding planning and wedding related books, WS Publishing also publishes in the categories of baby and... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-06-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 10/06/2011 - 08:22 Independent publisher Myriad Editions has received £60,000 in funding from Arts Council England in order to develop its literary and graphic fiction publishing. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#ace funding