Re: HPS and the internet

["Wesley M. Dunn" <WDUNN@brc1.tdh.state.tx.us>]

> Date: Tue, 16 May 95 13:12:48 -0500
> From: Bruce Busby <bbusby@umich.edu>
> Subject: Re: HPS and the internet
>
> With all due respect, I can only say that information should belong to
> all, and not be bogged down in legal issues, and should not be for sale.
> I have always stated that something on the internet is as open to copying
> as something in a library, just accessible to millions of people. If
> we have journals in libraries, then why not on the net? Hopefully not
> because of the $'s they pay for it. But I am pretty ignorant of legal
> issues, and actually glad of it.
>

Bruce (and others), this is rather naive.  Yes, it SHOULD be available
to all.  But to say copyright infringements and dollars don't matter
and should be ignored is the type of words lawyers (for the other
side) really like to hear.

This needs to be done, yes.  But it needs to be done legally and
"right".  Remember that the Journal pays big bucks to the HPS (it is
a profit center that subsidizes the newsletter, among other things).
To ignore the publisher's and author's rights is not only unfair, but
stupid.  Screw over the publishers, and no more journal.  And then
you won't have to worry about whether anything is on the net, because
their won't be any journal articles.

Now, in a perfect world (which this will never be), no profit motive
is necessary to coordinate peer-review articles that the rest of us
will accept.  But that ain't the case now.  So learn the rules and
learn how to make the rules work for what we want.

Wes
*********************************************
NOTE: Due to changes in the world and the way
things are, my email address has changed to:
       wdunn@brc1.tdh.state.tx.us
*********************************************