Brock Press

Issue of

The right to copy

Abstract:
Well, it's November.
The semester is drawing to a close. Reading lists are running dry, essays are being written, exams are being studied for - it's a busy month. Pretty soon we'll be getting our booklists for next semester, and it will be back to the store for most of us to get the textbooks that we'll be ignoring for the better part of four months....

Displaying 1 - 2 of 2

Julia

posted 12/01/09 @ 12:01 PM EST

You make some great points. Here's my two cents. Why not ask departments to support 2 versions when a work is well know to be freely available online: 1 the freely available online version vetted by the instructor; and then for those who want it, a vetted textbook version. Either vetted version would meet the required reading for the course. It's quite simple to navigate through an electronic text with ctrl+f or apple+f to find key text so electronic folk are on the same "page". Instructor would need to set landmarks that would work in hardcopy & eversions. So read pp. x-y would no longer be the single norm. Rather, those w/ hardcopy read pp. x-y & etext read chapter 5 from "The wind howled..... to "and the night slept." This way, students with e versions can carry them around in multiple mobile manners---on computers, netbooks, mobile phones, ereaders.

Post a reply to this comment

Adam

posted 12/01/09 @ 12:14 PM EST

In history, some professors have been kind enough to use old translations and online versions for primary documents.

What actually bugs me are photocopying reserves. 10 cents a page really adds up if your class heavily relies on reserves. I'd save at least 100 dollars per term and a lot of time and energy if reserves were available exclusively online via Sakai.

I suppose this has something to do with parts of Canadian copyright law that are still backwards.

Paying for knowledge and education in general is kind of lame! Money's tight, guys.

Post a reply to this comment