Russ Walter is the author of Secret Guide to Computers, a very thorough handbook with excellent reviews and healthy sales. The full text is online free of charge, and the same text is for sale in a printed edition. When the National Academies Press does this with its books, it finds that the free editions add more sales than they subtract, so that NAP profits. But it charges a competitive market price for the printed editions. When Walter does it, he charges less. "I'm not trying to make a profit. I'm just trying to make people happy --by charging as little as possible, while still covering my expenses. Instead of 'charging as much as the market will bear', I try to 'charge so little that the public will cheer'." In addition to giving away his copyrighted text, Walter gives permission in advance for users to make copies, to give away or sell the copies, and to add their own comments and call themselves co-authors. Finally, he publishes his home phone number and offers free tech help on any computer question at any hour of the day. This is serious sharing.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 3/07/2003 05:50:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
