Publishers balk at Google book copy plan

TalkBack 10 of 16:

Next »

« Previous

• Thread View
• Flat View

Fuzzy target, need better OCR

I'm not sure if these publishers are aware of the situation...

"'They may all be nice guys and have wonderful plans, but there's something here we have to have a serious conversation about,' Givler said, adding that the financial health of scholarly publishers is at stake."

... Scholarly books are sold back to institutions at fractions of their original sale price, and subsequently RESOLD to students at dramatically increased rates, do publishers get a bit of this resale price? What about the financial health of those still learning to become worthy of scholarly publication?

Even a simple biology text depending on the level of scholarly publication, run several hundred dollars for a student to rebuy a book.

Perhaps publishers should allow the searching of text for information so a student can offset costs a bit, remove the USED books program in favor of digitized prints ala Print On Demand.

I'm still struggling why a program aimed at university texts should cause problems, if a book can be checked out at the library by a student, why not code each library to a user profile and members can only access THAT library wherein they are members.

There are a lot of solutions than just wide-open doors, but to say that anyone other than students are in dire financial straits have a screw loose. Current texts are simply added to, and edited, no completely new volumes of knowledge are distributed, I can't imagine why books cost so much.

As with audio, video, gas, diamonds, and I'm sure many other segments of commerce, those with it want to hold it in a controlled manner so as to increase its worth even though there is nearly an unlimited source if provided in an efficient manner and used smartly.

Posted by: TheProtector   Posted on: 05/25/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

Alert moderator to an offensive message

Subscribe to this discussion via Email or RSS

SponsoredWhite Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads

• Why Isn't Server Virtualization Saving Us More? A Few Small Changes May Dramatically Increase Your Efficiency VMware Companies have rapidly adopted server virtualization over the past few ... Download Now
• Key Strategies for Federal Agencies - Safe and Cost Effective Migration for Legacy Hardware GovConnection The federal government has mandated that federal agencies reduce energy ... Download Now
• The True Costs of Virtual Server Solutions VMware In an economic environment that is repeatedly heralding the message "do ... Download Now