Re: Hathi Orphans?

[Sandy Thatcher <sandy.thatcher@alumni.princeton.edu>]

Nothing so "ontological" about this, just a simple matter of 
economics: with limited resources, publishers must have their 
staff do the work that will produce the greatest returns.

Sandy Thatcher

At 6:18 PM -0400 10/24/11, jean.claude.guedon@umontreal.ca wrote:

>Then, I guess, there is no hope but to prepare for war. When I 
>contemplate such a great spirit of compromise, such a wonderful 
>sensitivity for the common good hovering over publishers, even 
>university presses, then I can only expect bloody battles, lots 
>of sound and fury, and multiple displays of collective human 
>stupidity. The publisher's role, I thought,could claim some 
>degree of importance in some circumstances,, but I had not quite 
>understood that it was an ontological foundation of the 
>universe. If so, it must bear some relation to dark matter and 
>black forces...
>
>Jean-Claude Guedon
>
>
>-------- Message d'origine--------
>De: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu de la part de Sandy Thatcher
>Date: mer. 19/10/2011 18:37
>Objet : Re: Hathi Orphans?
>
>Asking publishers to research old files is asking them to do
>something for which there is no likely economic benefit.
>Publishers are not charitable organizations; they do what they do
>in order to make profits (if they are commercial) or to fulfill
>their missions (if they are non-profit). Doing the kind of
>research you are calling for is no simple, easy, or inexpensive
>task--as those staff can tell you who began investigating digital
>rights for titles they wanted to include under the Google
>Settlement. With that incentive now gone (it would appear), what
>is to motivate publishers to devote time to this task? They would
>not, i can assure you, look favorably upon a proposal to have
>government agents rummaging through their files either!
>
>Sandy Thatcher