From: Joseph Esposito <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 23:12:41 -0500

I am pretty sure the issue (I may be wrong about this) is that some
authors feel that they don't have control over the publication and
sale of their own work.  Some authors find their dissertation on
Amazon and wonder how it got there; some authors believe that such
publication and sale could interfere with their ability to revise and
publish their dissertation more formally--say, with a university
press.  The issue is control.

How to fix this?  The question is, who controls the rights to a
dissertation in the first place?  The answer to that may vary
institution by institution.  An institution that mandates deposit in
an open repository or insists that authors sign an agreement with
ProQuest or any third party has taken some of the control away from
the author.  That is an institution's prerogative.  Unfortunately,
some authors are not aware of these requirements and their
implications.

If the rights and control issues were made clear (and only the
institution can do this), the rest is easy.  There are countless
self-publishing services now, and publishing a dissertation in such a
manner would not be hard. It just isn't clear that this is what people
want.

Joe Esposito


On Fri, Nov 14, 2014 at 1:10 AM, LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> From: "Jim O'Donnell" <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 00:08:06 -0500
>
> Joe, can you think of a better way for ProQuest to handle this?  Might
> Amazon just step in and offer a three-easy-steps dissertation
> selfpublishing option and be done with it?  Or is there more going on
> here than meets the eye?  What do you think is really the issue?
>
> Thanks,
> Jim 'Donnell
>
> On Wednesday, November 12, 2014, LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> > From: Joseph Esposito <[log in to unmask]>
> > Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 09:10:27 -0500
> >
> > Inside Higher Ed is reporting that ProQuest will no longer make
> > dissertations available through third-party retailers (e.g., Amazon)
> > in response from complaints from authors:
> >
> > https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/11/12/proquest-ends-dissertation-sales-through-amazon
> >
> > Joe Esposito
> >
> > --
> > Joseph J. Esposito
> > Processed Media
> > [log in to unmask]
> > @josephjesposito
> > +Joseph Esposito