Re: Re: Open Access Academic Publications

Your arithmetic works but for one problem:  It is cost 
prohibitive for me to reproduce mass quanities of hard 
copy.  However, electronic copy is extraordinarily cheap 
to copy and reproduce.

I teach at U of B Law School on an adjunct basis.  As I 
recall, the book that I use costs my students around $60 
or even $100.  Assume that the law library had an 
electronic copy on line for which it paid $250.  Clearly, 
each student could either (i) freely access the copy or 
(ii) even if it were illegal, cheaply download a copy.

I think that it's the "cheap to reproduce" aspect that 
keeps these books in hard rather than electronic 
versions.  This would not seem to be a problem with law 
reviews, however, because, with rare exceptions, 
they're loss leaders anyway. By putting them on line, 
schools might even be able to cut the extent of their 
losses.

On 19 Apr 2004 at 18:32, M. Sean Fosmire wrote:

> I would see nothing wrong with widespread *paid* distribution of law
> reviews and other periodicals via the internet.  Such a service could
> be very cost-effective and still make some money for the sponsoring
> law schools.  
> 
> Paper and binding boards constitute a major obstacle to access.  If a
> current subscriber has to pay $57.50 per year for eight issues of the
> Harvard Law Review, at least $35 of that amount (to WAG it a bit) is
> paying for printing presses, paper, and delivery systems to get a
> paper version in my hands. Would the normal user pay $25 per year to
> get an electronic version, bypassing the presses and the mail, and in
> the process getting a searchable version that takes up no shelf space?
> Would librarians prefer the electronic version for those reasons?  You
> bet. And I would bet that far more people would subscribe at the lower
> prices. If the HLR sells 1,000 copies of each paper version @$57, it
> could probably sell 2,000 e-versions @$25, and maybe 8,000 @$10 per
> year.  The math results in: 
> 
> paper - maybe $22,000 in net revenue after expenses 
> e-version at $25 - $50,000
> e-version at $10 - $80,000
> 
> And for the e-versions, the expenses are negligible.  
> 
> M. Sean Fosmire 
> yclipse technologies
> Marquette, Michigan 
> [email protected]
> http://www.yclipse.com
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