From: Sandy Thatcher <[log in to unmask]> Date: Tue, 20 May 2014 00:08:03 -0500 Given that this new enterprise seems to be the brainchild of Pamela Samuelson, it seems to be aimed at mobilizing that group of authors who do not depend on publications for their living but have a strong interest, for career and other reasons, in maximizing free access to their writings. It was clear from the Authors Guild suit against Google that academics like Samuelson felt that the Guild did not represent the interests of nonprofessional writers like her and her academic colleagues, so now she wants an organization that will be able to lobby for those interests. My question to her and her colleagues is what they think should happen with scholarly publishing. Many of the people leading this new Alliance and on its advisory board have benefited from publishing books with university presses. Are they going to try bringing pressure on university administrators so that university presses are funded in such a way as to enable them to engage in OA publishing of monographs? Or do they simply want to weaken copyright protections on which university presses actually depend to conduct their business now, since universities generally require their presses to recover most of their costs from sales in the marketplace? I can see this Alliance as potentially helping scholarly publishing move in a direction that will free it of the necessity to rely on copyright protections, but if the Alliance is not careful, it could end up killing the goose before it has a chance to lay the golden egg. Sandy Thatcher > From: Ann Shumelda Okerson <[log in to unmask]> > Date: Mon, 19 May 2014 18:12:12 -0400 > > Of possible interest: https://authorsalliance.org/intro.html > > "The mission of Authors Alliance is to further the public interest in > facilitating widespread access to works of authorship by helping > authors navigate the opportunities and challenges of the digital age. > We provide information and tools designed to help authors better > understand and manage key legal, technological, and institutional > aspects essential to a knowledge economy of abundance. We are also a > voice for authors in discussions about public and institutional > policies that might promote or inhibit broad dissemination. > > "If you are interested in our mission, please join us at our launch, > 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday May 21st at the Internet Archive in San > Francisco. For more details and to RSVP please visit: > > authorsalliance.eventbrite.com