How publishers lobbied to “axe the reading tax” on ebooks, won – and then paid it to themselves
One of the (many) villains in Walled Culture the book (free ebook versions) is the publishing industry, specifically in the context of the transition from analogue books to…
Best-selling organic chemistry textbook to be freely available, supported by enlightened patronage
It’s well known that textbook prices are generally high. That’s in part because academic publishers effectively have a monopoly when it comes to standard texts. Very often, there…
How copyright’s ownership obsession has turned magazine contracts into intellectual extractivism
The indispensable Cory Doctorow, who was the first person to speak with Walled Culture as part of its interview series, has yet another great post that encapsulates a…
If they could, publishers would abolish libraries; here’s what they are doing instead
It is often said that if public libraries did not exist, modern publishers would never allow them to be set up, on the grounds that “clearly” every book…
During the Covid pandemic, some publishers didn’t just fail libraries, they exploited them
Back in December last year, a guest post on Walled Culture by Yohanna Anderson related how publishers initially offered universities free access to ebook collections when it became…
Why environmental non-governmental organizations – and everyone else – should go green (open access)
Open access (OA) – making academic research freely available to all – seems self-evidently a great idea. It’s good for the public, which gains access to work it…
Interview | Brewster Kahle: Libraries’ Role, 3 Internet Battles, Licensing Pains, the National Emergency Library, and the Internet Archive’s Controlled Digital Lending Efforts vs. the Publishers’ Lawsuit
Brewster Kahle is founder and Digital Librarian of the Internet Archive, one of the largest libraries in the world. Next to his mission to provide universal access to…
US publishers sue to stop a new law requiring them to offer ebooks at a “reasonable” price to libraries
Yohanna Anderson has just written eloquently about ebook price-gouging by publishers. As she notes, this is not just a UK problem, but affects many countries around the world.…
Guest post | #ebooksos crisis: price gouging publishers
Despite only 10% of university reading list items being available in ebook format, “everything is available in E-format” is a sentence librarians hear often. In the so-called digital…
Rights retention: one small step for academics, one giant leap for global access to knowledge
A few weeks ago, we wondered whether academic publishers might try to shut down the amazing General Index of scientific journals that Carl Malamud has created. There’s a…
BookTok shows how fans can power sales; imagine what could be done without copyright anxiety
A little while back, the Guardian covered the rising literary power of BookTok – short videos on TikTok devoted to the pleasures and pains of reading. As well…