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On 12/09/2014 10:26, Wolfgang Köberer wrote:
> I don't agree with Frank. Apart from the fact, that posting an entire
> work - where the arrangement and explanation even of known formulae is
> an achievement that is protected - violating copyright laws, I would not
> speculate about whether Jean Meeus would like that: ask him - and his
> publishing house - and find out. It doesn't matter whether somebody else
> in Ljubjana has copied the work before and produced the scan.

Good legal advice, no doubt.

> By the way, if posting such publications (with a small print run aimed
> at special interests) becomes usual and accepted no publishing house
> will publish such books anymore and nobody will bother to write them. I
> guess that the internet will then dry up another small field of expertise.

Here, opinions differ.

For starters, one generally doesn't write a technical book for profit. 
Skilled authors can usually earn much more simply plying their craft 
(1). At best it's a calling card.

'Small prints aimed at special interests' don't need publishers. An 
on-demand printer will do nicely in this situation, and many of them 
will provide other services a la carte (2).

It's far fetched to say that 'no publishing house will publish such 
books anymore and nobody will bother to write them', while the number of 
titles published yearly is increasing, with technical titles selling 
only in the low hundreds on average (3).

The bigger issue is that scientific & technical publishers are earning 
billions (!) of dollars per year on the back of free work done by 
academics. These publishers have profit margins nearing 40%, all legal, 
perversely enough (4).

Also note Google returns the location of a pirated PDF of 'Astronomical 
Algorithms' as its second search result (5), completely legally.

As to the idea that 'the internet will then dry up another small field 
of expertise'... I believe at least in balance the opposite must be true.

Luc

(1) https://www.google.com/search?q=royalties+technical+book
(2) https://www.google.com/search?q=print+on+demand
(3) https://www.google.com/search?q=number+of+books+published
(4) https://www.google.com/search?q=stm+publishers+profit+margins
(5) https://www.google.com/search?q=jean+meeus+astronomical+algorithms

   

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