Re: Napster, Planned Obsolescence & Control

[Simone JEROME <sjerome@ulg.ac.be>]

A 13:17 7/06/00 EDT, vous avez =E9crit :

>David says:
>
>> Rick, why are you and I writing these messages? I can only speak for
>> myself, but I am not paid for them, already have our equivalent of tenur=
e,
>> and if I am promoted it will be because of whatever administrative skill=
s
>> I may possess, not what I may write here or elsewere.
>
>I say:
>
>Actually, David, I'm pretty sure you ARE getting paid to contribute to
>this discussion -- I assume that you're doing so on work time.  So am I. =
=20
>This is part (albeit a small part) of my job. I don't have tenure yet, and
>while my LIBLICENSE-L contributions aren't likely to have any bearing on
>future tenure decisions, my ability to publish in other forums will.  I
>think it's likely that even in the absence of copyright protection, some
>sort of academic publishing forum will continue to exist.  What is less
>likely is the continued viability of other publishing forums.  If an
>author can't control the information she creates, I don't see how she can
>make money creating information (unless she's paid a salary to do work
>that happens to include writing -- not a system that typically produces
>great novels, for example).  And if she can't make money creating
>information, she'll have to get a different job.  This strikes me as a
>pretty fundamental issue, and it's one that, as far as I can tell,
>anti-intellectual-property folks generally ignore.

Dear friends,

My two cents from Europe where the discussion of a directive of the
European Community on copyright is under discussion and is challenged by
library associations grouped into EBLIDA,
http://www.eblida.org/position.htm

It is not a matter of being pro- or anti-property rights. I think that
every librarian agrees that professional authors have to receive fair
compensation for their work and that every intellectual work needs
protection against plagiarism, theft, etc... What is at stake are the
abuses and the monopoly status of some companies, not all but with
globalization their number is decreasing, which they try to enforce by
active lobbying.

I am not an economist and my opinion may be irrelevant but take time to
read a report of the Centraal Planbureau of the Dutch Ministry of Economic
Affairs, the first director of which was a Nobel prize in economy, on the
subject. It is superbly written, I mean understandable by anybody not only
economists and it is a thorough analysis of the problem.

http://www.cpb.nl/nl/pub/werkdoc.html (namely reports 119 to 120)

Regards,

Simone JEROME, Librarian
University of Liege
Institute of chemistry B6
4000 Sart Tilman (Liege 1)
BELGIUM

email address : sjerome@ulg.ac.be
http://www.ulg.ac.be/libnet/ud18.htm
URL : http://www.ulg.ac.be/libnet/ud18.htm