[-empyre-] a comment on reuse

[Gary Hall]

Hi Adam,

> But why restrict the mandate and right to change a book to the author? 
> Why can’t anyone improve a book or attempt to improve a book should 
> they feel the need?

> We need living books and under copyright we have to fight very hard to 
> keep them alive.
>
We recently published a series of 21 such bookswith Open Humanities 
Press (OHP).

Living Books About Life (http://www.livingbooksaboutlife.org) is a 
series of curated, open access books about life -- with life understood 
both philosophically and biologically -- which provide a bridge between 
the humanities and the sciences. Produced by a globally-distributed 
network of writers and editors, the books in the series repackage 
existing open access science research by clustering it around selected 
topics whose unifying theme is life: e.g., air, agriculture, bioethics, 
cosmetic surgery, electronic waste, energy, neurology and pharmacology.

All the books in the series are themselves ‘living’, in the sense they 
are open to ongoing collaborative processes of writing, editing, 
updating, remixing and commenting by 'readers'. As well as repackaging 
open access science research -- along with interactive maps, 
visualisations, podcasts and audio-visual material -- into a series of 
books, Living Books About Life is thus engaged in trying to rethink ‘the 
book’ itself as a living, collaborative endeavor.

Living Books About Life is itself a companion series to our earlier 
Liquid Books series, all of the titles in which can likewise be openly 
written and edited.
http://liquidbooks.pbworks.com/w/page/11135951/FrontPage

Gary

-- 
Gary Hall
Research Professor of Media and Performing Arts
School of Art and Design, Coventry University
Co-editor of Culture Machine
http://www.culturemachine.net
Co-founder of the Open Humanities Press
http://www.openhumanitiespress.org
Website http://www.garyhall.info

Latest:
Living Books About Life
http://www.livingbooksaboutlife.org













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