Partial response to Peter Banks

[Joseph Esposito <espositoj@gmail.com>]

In order to avoid the stones Peter and Jan Velterop were throwing at each
other, I snipped only the following from Peter's recent post:

"It isn't the transfer of copyright itself that protects the quality and
integrity of the work, but rather the copyright holder's insistence that
the work not be altered or condensed without the author's permission."

JE:  Peter neglects to mention (though I am sure he knows this, as he is a
distinguished and experienced publisher) that the financial might of a
publisher is an important factor in protecting the editorial integrity of
a work.  It is expensive to track down infringers and even more expensive
to litigate.  Self-archiving authors, authors who publish with small
companies with limited resources, and authors who work with "service
providers" (Jan Velterop's phrase to describe BioMed Central) have to rely
on their own wits and purses when they stumble upon someone who has
distorted a text.  

Personally, I am resigned to the post-modern condition of having an author
separated from his or her work (see
http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue8_3/esposito/index.html), but I
belong to a tiny minority.

Joe Esposito