Re: [Marxism] Readers of Marx and Engels Decry Publisher’s Assertion of Copyright - Research - The Chronicle of Higher Education

[Einde O'Callaghan]

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On 05.05.2014 22:29, Lüko Willms wrote: on Mittwoch, 30. April 2014 at 
22:38, Einde O'Callaghan wrote:

The material has now been removed and we've started examining the stuff
to see what was originally published in English, e.g. Engels's articles
for the Northern Star, Marx's articles for the New York Tribune or the
Minutes of the IWMA. We've also started looking for available
non-copyright translations of the material taken down. And we've begun
to re-translate some of the material

   You could also make a new try to convince L&W that they are shooting 
themselves in their foot and will get far less money from this copyright shark than 
what he is promising them. And that they will not sell less printed books because 
of that deal.

   And that they would be better of with a deal that MIA puts a link to the L&W 
shop where the readers could order a printed copy of the book.

Under the pressure of the bad publicity Lawrence & Wishart have 
announced that they are investigating ways of making at least some of 
their stuff available to a wider public. We're waiting to see what their 
proposals are.


Meanwhile, we're checking out other available (non-copyright) 
translations. And, as already mentioned, we're also working on getting 
new translations of at least some of the stuff. The latter is a longer 
term project seeing as it took several decades to organise the 
translations in the MECW  - and for about half of that time they had the 
support of a state power and several western academic institutions in 
doing so, something the MIA doesn't have - although we're particularly 
pleased that several of the people who work on the MEGA have given their 
support to us..


Einde O'Callaghan


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Re: [Marxism] Readers of Marx and Engels Decry Publisher’s Assertion of Copyright - Research - The Chronicle of Higher Education

[Lüko Willms]

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on Mittwoch, 30. April 2014 at 22:38, Einde O'Callaghan wrote:

> The material has now been removed and we've started examining the stuff
> to see what was originally published in English, e.g. Engels's articles
> for the Northern Star, Marx's articles for the New York Tribune or the
> Minutes of the IWMA. We've also started looking for available 
> non-copyright translations of the material taken down. And we've begun
> to re-translate some of the material 

  You could also make a new try to convince L&W that they are shooting 
themselves in their foot and will get far less money from this copyright shark 
than what he is promising them. And that they will not sell less printed books 
because of that deal. 

  And that they would be better of with a deal that MIA puts a link to the L&W 
shop where the readers could order a printed copy of the book. 

  This story reminds me of the blunder which the US computer company Unisys 
made by demanding a fee for their patented LZW compression algorithm which was 
used by Compuserve in their GIF graphic format. Unisys was just getting a lot 
of bad press. 

  They should instead have required that each shelf copy of a software using 
the LZW algorithm had to state that this software originated from Unisys, 
showing the Unisys logo, and a similar requirement for downloadable software. 
Shortsighted fools they are. 

 
Cheers, 
Lüko Willms


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Re: [Marxism] Readers of Marx and Engels Decry Publisher’s Assertion of Copyright - Research - The Chronicle of Higher Education

[Ralph Johansen]

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I have the 50-volume print edition of MECW, which I have been gradually 
collecting since I was in London in 1975, and now with the withdrawal of 
so much of it from the internet, I'm glad I did, as I can make it 
available to others in this area where it's the only source. I wonder 
what thought has been given to translating the complete MEGA project 
into other languages. I can foresee that a great number of volunteers 
conversant in German could take on that task all over the world, and I 
would not expect that any entity would assert copyright privileges over 
it, so that online editions in many languages would be readily available 
(and not through editions sold to libraries). But there may be an issue 
of some kind of coordination to assure accuracy and reliability. There 
are models for getting the works online certainly, such as MIA, and we 
owe a huge debt to volunteers David Walters, Andy Blunden, Einde 
O'Callaghan and others I do not know the names of, but I'm curious as to 
how the MEGA Project sees that going forward?



Lüko Willms wrote

on Donnerstag, 1. Mai 2014 at 01:20, Mark Lause wrote:

> Isn't there also a major project to do an actually complete edition in
> German?

Yes, there is. It is the MEGA - Marx-Engels GesamtAusgabe
>  

The German language Wikipedia has an article on MEGA:
> 

BTW, the MEGA project informed that UNESCO had inscribed the "Manifest 
der Kommunistischen Partei", draft manuscript page and "Das Kapital. 
Erster Band", Karl Marx's personal annotated copy in the Memory of the 
World Heritage Register:
-< 




> That could make the L&W translation of the shorter collected works
> outdated in any event.

No, it would not. MEGA is a scientific, historical-critical edition 
which also shows how the author did arrive at what had finally been 
published. We need also regularly readable publications of those works.



Cheers,
Lüko Willms

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Re: [Marxism] Readers of Marx and Engels Decry Publisher’s Assertion of Copyright - Research - The Chronicle of Higher Education

[Lüko Willms]

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on Donnerstag, 1. Mai 2014 at 01:20, Mark Lause wrote:

> Isn't there also a major project to do an actually complete edition in
> German?  

  Yes, there is. It is the MEGA - Marx-Engels GesamtAusgabe
>  

  The German language Wikipedia has an article on MEGA:
> 

  BTW, the MEGA project informed that UNESCO had inscribed the "Manifest der 
Kommunistischen Partei", draft manuscript page and "Das Kapital. Erster Band", 
Karl Marx's personal annotated copy in the Memory of the World Heritage 
Register:
-< 



> That could make the L&W translation of the shorter collected works
> outdated in any event.

  No, it would not. MEGA is a scientific, historical-critical edition which 
also shows how the author did arrive at what had finally been published. We 
need also regularly readable publications of those works. 

 
Cheers, 
Lüko Willms
 

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Re: [Marxism] Readers of Marx and Engels Decry Publisher’s Assertion of Copyright - Research - The Chronicle of Higher Education

[Mark Lause]

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Isn't there also a major project to do an actually complete edition in
German?  That could make the L&W translation of the shorter collected works
outdated in any event.

ML

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Re: [Marxism] Readers of Marx and Engels Decry Publisher’s Assertion of Copyright - Research - The Chronicle of Higher Education

[Einde O'Callaghan]

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On 30.04.2014 21:59, Lüko Willms wrote:

BTW 2, if the copyright of those translations made in the 1970ies and 
1980ies is owned collectively by three publishers, and L&W being only 
one of them, can they really unilaterally decide to put these works 
behind digital fences? And could not the other two allow the MIA to 
continue to host those works for really open access from all over the 
planet? Cheers, Lüko Willms Frankfurt, Germany


It's not that simple Lüko. As far as we're aware it was a three-way deal 
where any one of the three could block the deal. At least that was the 
way our previous arrangement worked.


The situation now is that Progress no longer exists and we're not at all 
certain whether there is a legal successor or, if there is, who that 
might be. As for International Publishers, we've also had a couple of 
run-ins with them over the years, although recently relations have been 
much more friendly. It appears that IP already have a digital 
subscription deal for the American market - but they didn't insist that 
we take down the stuff from vols 1-10.


The material has now been removed and we've started examining the stuff 
to see what was originally published in English, e.g. Engels's articles 
for the Northern Star, Marx's articles for the New York Tribune or the 
Minutes of the IWMA. We've also started looking for available 
non-copyright translations of the material taken down. And we've begun 
to re-translate some of the material - for example, today I did a new 
translation of "The Demands of the Communist Party in Germany", which 
was issued by the League of Communists in March 1848  - this will 
probably appear tomorrow. There are also others (non-MIA volunteers) 
who've offered to do translations for us.


Einde O'Callaghan


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Re: [Marxism] Readers of Marx and Engels Decry Publisher’s Assertion of Copyright - Research - The Chronicle of Higher Education

[Lüko Willms]

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on Dienstag, 29. April 2014 at 15:01, Louis Proyect wrote:

> In response to its critics, Lawrence & Wishart posted a statement 

> It said that it "survives on a shoestring" 
> and argued that its continued existence 
> depends on its being able 
> to derive income from its stake in the Collected Works.

> "We are currently negotiating an agreement with a distributor that will
> offer a digital version of the Collected Works to university libraries
> worldwide," the publisher said. "This will have the effect of 
> maintaining a public presence of the Works, in the public sphere of the
> academic library, paid for by public funds. This is a model of commons
> that reimburses publishers, authors, and translators for the work that
> has gone into creating a book or series of books."

  I guess the following happened: 

  One of those sharks who live from other people's work by putting handcuffs 
and shackles on knowledge, and selling the access to it at eaves drops for 
heavy prices, approached L&W whispering them "I can guarantee you a steady 
income from your books, if you rely on me to sell your property to universities 
at prices which I set, and you will get some crumbs, er, no, a steady stream of 
income from us." But as with every pact with the devil, you have to sell your 
soul, and this devil said that the pact could become valid only when L&W made 
sure that that stuff, which the copyright shark wanted to make money on, is 
being withdrawn from public access. You have to put freely available knowledge 
behind bars, if you want to draw a profit from it. And L&W got seduced by this 
siren song and sold their soul to the devil. 

  Now, I am sure that this deal will bring them not very much as income, since 
the devil will keep most of it as "administrative fees", and "transaction 
costs" and what have you. 

  And L&W will no longer be able to sell a single printed volume of Marx and 
Engels to the the university libraries, since they will tell any student or 
faculty who would like to see a printed copy: "We have the works as digitial 
copy which you can access online from your university account (but not download 
and not print it), and pay already a hefty subscription price to this copyright 
shark, so we will not spend a single penny to buy something we already have." 

   Without this pact with the devil, any student or faculty having read this or 
that by Marx or Engels on the MIA, could ask their university or college 
library to buy a printed copy of this, and point to the publication by Lawrence 
& Wishart. That market will dry out by L&W falling prey to the whisperings of 
the copyright devils. 
  
  BTW, would L&W possibly use the digitizations made by MIA volunteers as the 
basis of the digital works they are about to hand over to this knowledge prison 
guards? That would amount to outright stealing, in my humble opinion. 

  BTW 2, if the copyright of those translations made in the 1970ies and 1980ies 
is owned collectively by three publishers, and L&W being only one of them, can 
they really unilaterally decide to put these works behind digital fences? And 
could not the other two allow the MIA to continue to host those works for 
really open access from all over the planet? 


 
Cheers, 
Lüko Willms
Frankfurt, Germany


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[Marxism] Readers of Marx and Engels Decry Publisher’s Assertion of Copyright - Research - The Chronicle of Higher Education

[Louis Proyect]

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(Chronicle of Higher Education is the major trade paper for higher 
education administrators and professors. Very important that it has 
weighed in.)


http://chronicle.com/article/Readers-of-MarxEngels/146251/

By Jennifer Howard

In a capitalist world, even a radical publishing house devoted to the 
works of socialist thinkers has to make money to survive. That’s the 
argument being used by Lawrence & Wishart, a London-based publisher, to 
explain why it has asked the Marxists Internet Archive, a volunteer-run 
online collection of socialist writers’ works, to remove from the 
website copyrighted material from the publisher’s Marx Engels Collected 
Works by April 30.


The publisher says it wants to market a digital edition to libraries in 
order to keep itself in business. While the Marxists Internet Archive is 
not contesting the company’s right to enforce its copyright, news of its 
request set off an outcry from some observers and supporters of the archive.


"If Lawrence & Wishart still considers itself a socialist institution, 
its treatment of the archive is uncomradely at best, and arguably much 
worse; while if the press is now purely a capitalist enterprise, its 
behavior is merely stupid," wrote the columnist and critic Scott McLemee 
in an April 24 post on the Crooked Timber blog.


More than 4,000 people have now signed a petition on Change.org calling 
for an end to copyright on Marx and Engels’s work. "Privatization of 
Marx and Engels’ writings is like getting a trademark for the words 
‘socialism’ or ‘communism,’" the petition says.


Compiled over a quarter-century beginning in 1975, the 50-volume 
Collected Works includes English translations of not just blockbusters 
like The Communist Manifesto but also harder-to-find and less-familiar 
published and unpublished articles, letters, and other writings. 
Lawrence & Wishart jointly holds the copyright with two other publishing 
houses, International Publishers and Progress Publishers.


Plenty of Marx and Engels’s work is in the public domain. One doesn’t 
need to be a member of a privileged class—with access to a university 
library, for instance—to find freely available editions of Das Kapital.


"In this case, what is copyrighted is the specific translations, the 
considerable notes, etc.," said Betty Smith, president of International 
Publishers, in an email.


In response to its critics, Lawrence & Wishart posted a statement on its 
website assailing what it called a "campaign of online abuse" and 
defending its decision to enforce its copyright. It said that it 
"survives on a shoestring" and argued that its continued existence 
depends on its being able to derive income from its stake in the 
Collected Works.


"We are currently negotiating an agreement with a distributor that will 
offer a digital version of the Collected Works to university libraries 
worldwide," the publisher said. "This will have the effect of 
maintaining a public presence of the Works, in the public sphere of the 
academic library, paid for by public funds. This is a model of commons 
that reimburses publishers, authors, and translators for the work that 
has gone into creating a book or series of books."


The publisher defended its history and record as a radical publishing 
enterprise, suggesting that its critics should direct their anger elsewhere.


"We would suggest that if online activists wish to attack targets in the 
publishing industry who truly do derive huge profits from the 
exploitation of their workers and from catalogues filled with radical 
political thought, then there are far-more-appropriate targets for them 
to direct their anger towards than a tiny British publishing house with 
no shareholders and a small, ill-paid staff," it said.

‘Simple Factual Notice’

Andy Blunden has been part of the volunteer collective that runs the 
nonprofit Marxists Internet Archive for about 15 years. He told The 
Chronicle that he was authorized to speak for the group, and that it 
does not contest Lawrence & Wishart’s copyright on the material at 
stake—some 1,662 files, "really quite a small percentage" of everything 
in the Collected Works, he said. (It’s also a tiny fraction of the 
archive’s total contents, which include the writings of hundreds of 
authors in dozens of languages.)


According to him, the archive has not been a party to the criticism 
lobbed at the publisher. "We put a simple factual notice on our main 
page, and we put that on our Facebook page," Mr. Blunden said. "We feel 
that it’s improper of us to go out and agitate and say bad things about 
Lawrence & Wishart. We’re trying to be quite restrained about this. It’s 
down to our readers, really, to defend us."


He said that the archive last had talks with Lawrence & W