> At 09:59 AM 11/16/99 -0500, you wrote:
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: Thomas J. Walker <tjw_at_GNV.IFAS.UFL.EDU>
> >To: <AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG>
> >Sent: Tuesday, November 16, 1999 8:46 AM
> >Subject: What are researchers willing to do?
> >
> >
> >> To find out what those attending my two most recent talks were willing
to
> >> do to promote free access, I asked in a questionnaire if they would--
> >>
> ><snip>
> >> (3) post their old articles on their home pages without permissions
from
> >> copyright-holding publishers?
> >>
> >> [80% would]
> >
> >Interesting that 80% said that they will break the law. Is ignorance of
the
> >law or something else behind this?
> >
>
> I have posted a handout on how to put your own reprints on the Web. It is
> at http://csssrvr.entnem.ufl.edu/~walker/5810/09eJArtW.PDF.
>
> Here is some of what I say about the question you raise:
>
> Might illegal posting be ethical?
>
> Asking for permission to post old articles is time consuming and
> frustrating. When I tried it several years ago, a common response was no
> response.
>
> Authors might judge it ethical to post any of their articles older than 1
> or 2 years without asking permission for these two reasons: (1) they are
> making the results of publicly supported research public; (2) they are not
> reducing the revenues of the publisher.
>
> I have decided that such posting is ethical and have a clickable
> bibliography on my home page
> (http://csssrvr.entnem.ufl.edu/~walker/tjwbib/walkbib.htm).
<snip>
People who violate law for any reason, even based on ethics not greed, need
to know that they are subject to punishment in court. The fact that the
property is intellectual doesn't make it any different than taking physical
property that you don't own.
Received on Wed Feb 10 1999 - 19:17:43 GMT