Transcript What do publishers do? Balancing interests in copyright

What do publishers do?
Balancing interests in copyright
Lynette Owen, Copyright Director,
Pearson Education Ltd, United
Kingdom
Vilnius May 13th 2010
Common misperceptions about
publishing
• Publishers don’t really do anything – they
just print authors’ manuscripts exactly as
they are written
• Publishers “lock up” content to benefit
themselves
• Everything on the internet should be free
anyway
What do authors feel?
• Some may wish to make their work available to
the public free of charge and they are entitled to
do so if they wish, perhaps through Creative
Commons licences
• But other authors choose to use the services of
publishers to bring their work to market in print
and/or electronic form, either because they want to
earn money and/or enhance their reputations
So what do publishers actually
do? (1)
• They can discover, encourage and improve the
work of creative writers and build their reputation
• In educational, academic and professional
publishing it is usually the publisher who
identifies market needs and who finds authors to
fulfil those needs
• Publishers invest time, expertise and money in
designing not only books in print format but also
supplementary online learning materials
So what do publishers actually
do? (2)
• They have developed skills in reaching their
target markets and promoting their books to
maximise sales, often in the face of stiff
competition
• They handle all aspects of sales and deal
with accounting to the author
What about “free”?
• High quality content can never be really be free –
somewhere along the line, someone has to pay
• Open Access is primarily a feature of scientific
journal publishing – the impetus comes primarily
from research funding organisations. The most
prestigious journals are not OA. There are some
interesting experiments with OA books e.g.
Bloomsbury Professional
Publishers initiatives to address
special market needs
• Free or low-cost access to academic journals via
programmes such as HINARI and AGORA
• Some publishers specialise in producing original
educational materials to meet market needs in
developing countries
• Some publishers adapt existing materials for local
curricula
• Most academic publishers have large-scale
licensing programmes for translation and lowprice reprint rights of core texts to developing
countries
What about compulsory
licensing?
• The Paris Revisions to the Berne and Universal
Copyright Conventions provide developing
countries with access to compulsory licensing for
books needed for educational purposes, but with
stringent rules which have often been
misunderstood
• Countries with their own form of compulsory
licensing have often acted despite the availability
of appropriate editions, and in some cases
facilitate state-sanctioned piracy
What about copyright
exceptions?
• There are moves for multinational exceptions for
the visually impaired, although many countries
already have their own provisions
• Exceptions for educational use damage not only
the future of textbook producers in the developed
countries (whose books are the main targets) but
also that of local publishers