I think that we are mixing different things here :
- The "user's costs" :
When I buy a book or a journal, I immediately see how much it costs me.
When I go online, it seems to be free, but there are still costs : the
computer, the electricity, the Internet access (provider) and sometimes,
the printer, the paper, the ink.
Considering how many things I can have access to online, it seems
reasonnable to say it costs less than buying a book, but it is not
enterely "free".
- The production costs
Obvious also when we speak of printer matter, we tend to forget them
when it comes to online publishing. There is a server, some technician
to take care of it, someone who does the web design, etc. Even when it
is on so called "free platforms", those costs have to be covered, and
they are paid for by someone (university for instance). And if people
work "for free" on webdesign or self-publishing, they have to pay their
rent in a way or another = earning money from somewhere.
- The copyright
It is not related, strictly speaking, nowadays to online publishing or
printed publishing or "free" access as Danny Butt shows in his email
below. A copyrighted text may be available for "free" on the Internet ...
The question might be : how much do you (really) pay to get access to a
document, how much the people who have worked to provide the access to
this document are paid, who (ultimately) pays for this service ?
Annick
Danny Butt wrote:
> Hi
>
> Just a note to say that I had an article published in Leonardo where
> they were prepared to accept a non-exclusive license agreement to
> publish, rather than transfer of copyright. My experience is that
> many journals owned by the multinationals will do this if you agitate
> hard enough for it. The article also appears for free on my website,
> and has been republished in a book.
>
> Of course, access to knowledge is a critical issue, but I think there
> are a lot of different types of publishing economies out there, and
> many of us participate in them in different ways at different times.
> The "old" copyright regime still drives the publishing industry and
> will for a while yet...
>
> Cheers,
>
> Danny
>
>
> On 29/04/2008, at 7:28 PM, Armin Medosch wrote:
>
>> Hi list
>>
>> the problem is, I can never submit a paper to anything done by Leonardo
>> because they adhere to the old copyright regime. I have made a
>> decision,
>> that everything i write is published freely and should be available on
>> the internet without charge. now has this anything to do with FOSS?
>>
>> regards
>> Armin
>>
>>
>> On Tue, 2008-04-29 at 17:03 +1000, Sean Cubitt wrote:
>>
>>> Apologies for cross posting
>>>
>>> MEDIA ART HISTORY 09
>>> Re:live
>>> Third International Conference on the Histories of Media Art,
>>> Science and
>>> Technology
>>> Melbourne 26-29 November 2009
>>>
>>> Call For Papers Deadline 19th December 2008
>>> http://www.mediaarthistory.org
>>>
>>> Sponsored by Leonardo and the Victorian College of the Arts
>>> (University of
>>> Melbourne)
>>>
>>> Following the success of Media Art History 05 Re:fresh in Banff and
>>> Media
>>> Art History 07 Re:place in Berlin, Media Art History 09 Re:llve in
>>> Melbourne
>>> will host three days of keynotes, panels and poster sessions Media Art
>>> History 09 - Re:live, a refereed conference, is calling for papers,
>>> panels
>>> and posters on the histories of digital, electronic and
>>> technological media
>>> arts. With the theme of Re:live we are especially interested in
>>> expanding
>>> the range of topics to include sustainability, live arts and the
>>> technological arts of life, both organic and nonorganic.
>>>
>>> How do the media arts change? Through innovation, accident, discovery,
>>> mutation or crisis? How did contemporary media arts come to look
>>> and sound
>>> like they do? What options and potentialities and eccentricities in
>>> the
>>> history of media have been lost or overlooked or suppressed? What
>>> hopes have
>>> been realised and which dashed? What is the history of speculation on
>>> alternate histories, and how have they altered the course of media art
>>> history?
>>>
>>> Participants are asked to address at least one the following areas
>>> in their
>>> abstract:
>>> - histories of the art-science-technology connection in particular
>>> works,
>>> careers, exhibitions and institutions, especially in national and
>>> regional
>>> perspective
>>> - histories of biology, the life sciences and bioart in relation to
>>> media
>>> arts
>>> - histories of the environment, environmental sciences, ideas of
>>> sustainability and ecology in the discourses and practices of media
>>> arts
>>> - histories of liveness and performance in relation to media arts
>>> theory and
>>> practice, including network performance, multimedia performance and
>>> the
>>> relation of media to the histories of theatre
>>> - histories of the life of machines, cyborgs, virtual communities
>>> and the
>>> arts of transmission
>>> - histories of the liveness of real-time arts and art-science-
>>> technology
>>> collaborations in such areas as earth sciences, meteorology and
>>> astronomy
>>> - histories of innovation, accident, discovery, and speculation on
>>> alternative futures in media arts
>>>
>>> We particularly wish to encourage presentations from and about these
>>> histories in the Asia-Pacific region. Proposals are welcomed from
>>> artists,
>>> curators, arts organisers and researchers in media, art history,
>>> performance
>>> studies, literature, film, and science and technology studies.
>>>
>>> Selected papers from the conference will be published in Leonardo (MIT
>>> Press). We are negotiating with academic presses for one or two
>>> anthologies
>>> from the conference.
>>>
>>> Submissions: A dedicated website with updates and online paper
>>> submission
>>> system is available at http://www.mediaarthistory.org. Abstracts of
>>> proposals, panel presentations and posters should be submitted in
>>> either
>>> text, RTF, PDF or Word formats
>>>
>>> Deadline for 200 word abstracts: 19th December 2008. Please submit
>>> proposals
>>> at
>>> http://moodle.donau-uni.ac.at/relive/openconf.php
>>>
>>> Sean Cubitt and Paul Thomas, conference co-chairs.
>>>
>>> Prof Sean Cubitt
>>> [log in to unmask]
>>> Director, Media and Communications Program
>>> Faculty of Arts
>>> Room 127 John Medley East
>>> The University of Melbourne
>>> Parkville VIC 3010
>>> Australia
>>>
>>> Tel: + 61 3 8344 3667
>>> Fax:+ 61 3 8344 5494
>>> M: 0448 304 004
>>> Skype: seancubitt
>>> http://www.culture-communication.unimelb.edu.au/media-communications/
>>> http://homepage.mac.com/waikatoscreen/seanc/
>>> http://seancubitt.blogspot.com/
>>> http://del.icio.us/seancubitt
>>>
>>> Editor-in-Chief Leonardo Book Series
>>> http://leonardo.info
>>>
>
>
>
> --
> http://www.dannybutt.net
>
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