I agree with Professor Riolo - the best way forward is for authors to refuse to assign copyright to a publisher, and simply to license them.
I also agree with Stevan though - if an author DOES choose to assign copyright, then the practical problems of a publisher trying to chase all those allegedly unauthorised copies floating in the ether, then finding out who is responsible for them and then issuing numerous legal summonses in obscure parts of the world are insuperable. This means that the genie IS out of the bottle and there is in practice nothing the publishers can do about the genie without ruining themselves with expensive litigation. Publishers will have to adopt new business models if they are to survive. Many are exploring innovative ways to do just that. Regarding Albert's contention that it is possible to track down all the pirate copies through Google, etc., these search engines only cover a minute proportion of all the Web pages out there. Professor Charles Oppenheim Dept of Information Science Loughborough University Loughborough Leics LE11 3TU Tel 01509-223065 Fax 01509-223053