Research in a Privatized World

["William Walsh" <libwdw@langate.gsu.edu>]

Although he makes more interesting points elsewhere in the book, some on
this list may be interested in the following quote from Kembrew McLeod's
new book Freedom of Expression.  McLeod, known for selling his soul on
eBay and holding trademark to the phrase "freedom of expression" is in the
Dept. of Communication Studies at the University of Iowa.  The excerpt is
from a Creative Commons licensed PDF edition of the title.

"This quest for more proprietary power, in turn, has undermined the basic
mechanics of Western science's gift economy, where the norms of openness
fueled the explosion of scientific discoveries over the past two
centuries. Today, private companies are buying up the rights to academic
journals in the sciences, arts, and humanities, something that undermines
the free sharing of knowledge that has characterized academia. We academic
authors are in a precarious position, because our tenure and promotion
hinges on publishing in peer-reviewed journals. In most cases, we must
give up our copyrights to what we write because it's a long-standing
practice within the scholarly community. In the past, we scholars gave
away our work*which was often referred to as a "contribution to the
field"*in an act that resembles a gift exchange.

By giving our words (and even our copyrights) to journals, it was
understood that we were increasing the intellectual richness of our area
of study. If the knowledge we contributed for free is well received by our
peers, we are rewarded with enhanced reputations and merit pay raises.
It's a classic example of the circuitous rewards of the gift economy.
Today, however, this kind of academic gift economy is being threatened by
the privatization of scholarly information, which significantly raises the
price of access.  On a related note, you wouldn't believe the number of
professors and grad students I've talked to who have had to remove a
journal article (or book chapter) from a course pack because the copyright
holder wanted a staggering licensing fee."

The Creative Commons licensed edition of the title is available online at:  
http://kembrew.com/documents/mcleod-freedomofexpression3.pdf

Bill

William Walsh
Head, Acquisitions Department
Georgia State University Library
100 Decatur Street, SE
Atlanta, GA 30303
Phone: 404.651.2149
Fax: 404.651.2148
Email:  wwalsh@gsu.edu