Re: <nettime> letter from a publisher

["Saul Albert" <saul.albert@virgin.net>]

Dear Mr Cody

I am sure you've received hundreds of unsolicited e-mails since Geert
posted your letter on Nettime, and I hope you are doing yourself the
service of reading through them. 

Geert is very deeply involved in the on-line writing practice of Nettime.
It is part of his research and a real achievement that he has helped to
establish such a remarkable thing. I call it a "thing" because, as you are
probably aware if you are in the business of publishing such books as
"Culture and Technology in the New Europe", a mailing list can be a
meeting place, an agora, an argument, an improvised performance or a
literary genre.  One of the basic principles of Nettime is that all
material is mutable and governed by a free distribution clause. 

 The net is a medium, Mr Cody, and develops it's own rules for
distribution and filtration. It does not rely on traditional publishing
tactics and allows it's users and writer/publishers to find their most
relevant audience. 

If Geert has something to say about Culture and Technology in the New
Europe, then you ought to be broad minded enough to see that it must be
contextualised by it's legal status. His writing is the product of his
involvement in a culture that has it's own laws and methods for creating
value and protecting a notion of "copyright". 

Readers of your book will no doubt appreciate it for it's qualities. It's
broad distribution, it's material quality, it's context. Geert's work will
be different in printed form, but not worthless as such, just because it
is also available on the net. It is a different experience, reading
printed matter, and one that will be paid for gladly. The efforts of proof
readers, editors, graphic designers and printers are not unrecognised. I
pay for those people's efforts because it's worth it for the results. Just
because I can download the entire text of Plato's republic it doesn't mean
I will toast my eyes reading it of the screen, or spend £28 on ink
cartridges to print it out. I'll buy the penguin paperback edition for
£5.00 and read it on the loo. 

Mr Cody, if Geert still agrees to let you use his piece once you recognise
the need to contextualise his work legally and allow him to publish
without the agreement, rest assured you have included something relevant,
legally and (probably) textually. 

----------
>From: Geert Lovink <geert@xs4all.nl>
>To: nettime-l@bbs.thing.net
>Subject: <nettime> letter from a publisher
>Date: Fri, Sep 17, 1999, 1:42 pm
>

> From: William Cody <w.cody@elsevier.com>
> To: geert@xs4all.nl
> Subject: Re: contributor agreement -Reply
>
> Dear Dr. Lovink: You indicate that you will not sign the contributor
> agreement, and insist that your work must be free for all to read. In that
> case, please feel free to post your work on the world wide web, but we
> will not be able to include your chapter in the book. Quite simply, if we
> allowed everyone free and open access we would have nothing to sell and

[ edited to save bits ]

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