Thread about E-Book licenses

I am glad to see this subject recieve attention and I appreciate much of the underlying sentiment involved. That is positive.

I do not see the pandemic, though as "At last, though, a chance to reinvent licensing and DRM"

(1/?) https://twitter.com/ProQuest/status/1260238790293180417

The pandemic is a human catastrophe that has also, in my narrow professional world, exposed the utter sham that underpins much of ebook licensing

The paucity of options, the nakedly self-serving deals, the artificial obstruction of walled gardens to create scarcity.

(2/?)

Farcical pricing, appalling commitment to accessibility and a purposeful agenda to halt open progress

@hohojanna has been interviewed about this and responded with admirable passion here: https://blogs.ifla.org/lpa/2020/04/30/2147/

(3/?)

@claremcdean has provided an equally heartfelt excoriation in a report here: https://blogs.ifla.org/lpa/2020/04/30/2147/

We are beyond asking for opportunities to reinvent licensing and DRM. We are seething at predatory practice it is time to knock some of these walls down permanently

(4/?)

@jisc, @sconul, @rl_uk, @uklibrariesnag, and @northerncollab all have potential roles in the national conversation that will be required to do this, indeed many of those conversations have started

We can accelerate these and drive for improvements across 5 key streams

(5/?)

1 - Detailed and proactive investigations into legislation covering markets and competitions, proper legal analysis of the licensing types and platforms, with a view to challenging the extent to which these inhibit competition and areas where monopolies could exist

(6/?)

2 - National bodies developing a view/manifesto of the requirements of fair and reasonable licensing. Use existing data to create public lists of titles where reasonable licenses are not available and openly identift trends. Expose disparities between print and e pricing

(7/?)

3 - Positive engagement with academic communities. Share the information from (2) with academics fully, specifically with authors, spread understanding about what happens to their books and how important the licensing agreements they sign can end up being

(8/?)

4 - Discuss with University leaders and members of the academic community wholesale open replacements for resources where the production of good licensing fails. National or regional boycotts, in print and e, of resources that fail a fair and reasonable licensing test

(9/?)

5 - Can we work towards part of an academic career track being rewarded financially and professionally for creating open content in their field of expertise? What type of local/national conversations would we need to have to find out?

(10/?)

So a few nice simple things to knock out in the next few weeks

It'll be complicated, messy, difficult, heck it may not be possible at all

I have been so disgusted by the absolute state of ebook licensing that I am minded to give it a try

#ebook #ebooks #openaccess

(11/11)

CORRECTION: In the 4th tweet referring to the excellent article by @claremcdean I fudged the link. The correct one is here, I highly recommended it https://blog.yorksj.ac.uk/infoincurriculum/2020/05/12/lobbying-for-fairer-ebook-access/

Thanks to @rachelabramley for the spot
(12/11)