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Re: [RFI] Paying for information

To: "RFI List" <rfi@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [RFI] Paying for information
From: "Jim Brown" <jimbrown.enteract@rcn.com>
Reply-to: Jim Brown <jimbrown.enteract@rcn.com>
Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2003 22:07:55 -0600
List-post: <mailto:rfi@contesting.com>
On Tue, 23 Dec 2003 18:09:36 -0800, Michael Tope wrote:

>Do university engineering libraries commonly carry AES
>publications? 

The Journal of the AES is in most good technical libraries. The
convention preprints are not. 

Northwestern University is the only library I know of in Chicago (where
I live) that allows the general public access without high fees. Most
charge $300-$500/year, some more. They have a decent technical library,
and I've used it for research. 
 
>If so, I may be able to get a copy of the paper
>in question. BTW, is the $10 AES charges for duplication
>and mailing costs, or is AES actually trying to generate
>revenue with these papers? 

I doubt it, but there is administrative cost in handling the entire
papers process, so I suspect the cost of a preprint contributes to the
that process. There is peer review prior to acceptance, the papers are
presented live, typically 20-30 minutes allowed for each. Convention
facilities at places like the Javits Center in NY and the RAI Center in
Amsterdam aren't cheap. AES got clobbered financially by 9/11 -- our
fall convention that year was scheduled for the last week of Sept in
NYC, and Javits was commandeered for disaster relief. The convention
was put off until early December, with far lower attendance.  

It doesn't make sense to me that a download is the same cost as hard
copy mailed to you, but that's the way they do it. (Perhaps they add
shipping and handling?) The preprints are half price for members, and
many of us working in the field buy the CD ROM with pdf's of all the
papers from each convention for about $100. That doesn't make sense for
you, but it would make sense for a technical library.  

>For IEEE publications, you
>can go to the IEEE website and get them, but you typically
>need a subscription in order to download. Many of these
>publications are available, however, from university
>engineering libraries for the cost of running their xerox
>machines.

Yes. That's the case at Northwestern. Copying entire publications that
are still in print is probably a violation of copyright. Copying
articles that are long out of print or a few pages here and there for
the convenience of studying at home rather than at a desk in a library
may come under fair use -- I don't know -- it's not my field of
expertise. :) 

BTW, has anyone noticed that it is now (in the last 3 years) extremely
difficult to download entire Parts of FCC regulations as pdf's, whereas
it used to be quite easy? That IS public information, and ought to be
freely available. I've always wondered how the FCC Rules services would
react to the Internet. Now we know!  


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