RE: A thought about H.R. 2281

["Hamaker, Chuck" <cahamake@email.uncc.edu>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	anthony.watkinson [SMTP:anthony.watkinson@BTinternet.com]
> Sent:	Thursday, June 25, 1998 7:03 PM
> To:	liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
> Subject:	Re: A thought about H.R. 2281 
> 
> Chuck Hamaker writes - have you asked authors if they have been
> compensated for the articles they have written by tenure and
> promotion? I have never asked that question in that form but in over
> twenty five years in publishing I have never met an academic author of
> an article who asked
> to be paid.
	

[Hamaker, Chuck] I do know at least one librarian who is furious everytime
she hands over an article to a journal. She is a former newspaper
reporter. 

	My point is that the "argument" as to why scholarly publishers and
scholarly authors should join forces to promote laws that destroy fair use
in the electronic environment is a bogus one. (i.e. scholars get tenure,
so its "right" that they should pass the articles on to publishers without
getting any share of potential profits). 

	Authors should share in potential profits. And perhaps, if
publishers were suggesting that authors would received residuals, they
MIGHT be able to get more on-board for draconian control measures, but
then I doubt it as the goals authors have in writing and publishing are
often different than the goals publishers have in publishing. Copyright
laws, and by extension the "new rights' for copyright holders in the
electronic environment envisioned by HR 2281 should benefit authors. If
they don't then you might have the kernel of why there is opposition to
them. Publishers for instance have electronic journals on the net right
now that they prohibit commercial document delivery services from handling
at all. And that they prohibit by contract, from InterLibrary Loan. This
is contrary to what authors do want, which is distribution far and wide of
their works (in the scholarly arena). 

> They may be wrong but that is how it is - upsetting to him
> though it may be. I looked him up on AltaVista to see what he wrote.
> There were 300 citations - mostly to the same outpourings admittedly.
> Does he get paid? Has he ever been promoted and were his publications
> taken into account? 
	
[Hamaker, Chuck] I'm not ambivalent about tenure and promotion...and their
connection to publication. tenuous at best, and NOT proof of good
scholarship at worst (in my field of course)...Most of the ALtavista hits
were because I'm on the Editorial Board of the Newsletter on Serials
Pricing Issues, The first (to my knowledge)  electronic publication in
librarianship. Everytime an issue goes out, I'm listed on the ed. board
statement. (There's also a biologist, and a computer scientist by the same
name) 

	Chuck Hamaker