[Reader-list] sign it please

[Patrice Riemens]

> https://www.change.org/en-IN/petitions/academics-appeal-to-publishers-to-withdraw-suit-filed-against-delhi-university


In the Netherlands (and I believe in most countries of the Global North),
academic institutions, which usually do the copying in-house, have (very
expensive) agreements with publishers to allow them to copy parts of text
book for course-readers. On top of that, publishers receive a (hefty)
lump-sum for the 'private' copying activities of staff and students (never
mind that such private use copying is perfectly legal). This way,
publishers probably earn as much, if not more, out of these arrangements,
than they do from selling the books themselves.

Now IPR/Copyrights revenue maximisation goes truly global, the publishers
are after India as well. There however, the copying is mostly done outside
the university in small businesses usually providing much better, faster,
and cheaper services than we get in the North. So go after these
pop-and-mom shops appears to be the motto.

Time to put a (global) halt to the greed of academic publishers, and as
far as I am concerned, to their very existence as for-profit economic
actors.