Re: open access textbooks?

[Sandy Thatcher <sgt3@psu.edu>]

No, but there is a booming industry in pirated textbooks around 
the world, as the February 11 report of the International 
Intellectual Property Alliance reveals: http://www.iipa.co. 
Students in developing countries are not lacking access to such 
books, but they are generating no income for U.S. authors and 
publishers.

Sandy Thatcher
Penn State University Press

>An important argument in favor of Open Access is the observation
>that authors of journal articles seek no pecuniary reward and are
>indeed interested mainly in seeing broadest possible
>dissemination, use, and impact of their work, and the movement
>capitalizes well on that basic motivation.  In at least one
>publishing domain, however, academics are indeed interested in
>the money:  textbooks.  On all sides, students complain about the
>high prices of textbooks, but they keep going up. Does anyone
>know of Open Access initiatives designed to bring high quality
>current science textbooks to students in universities in the
>developing world?  Movement in that direction could have very
>positive impact on millions of students in emerging societies.
>
>Jim O'Donnell
>Georgetown U.