Mechandising electronic texts

[Dominik Wujastyk]

Dear Colleagues,

I know we have all been perturbed by the Munich company selling "our"
files on CDROM.  As you know, I have written to the company, and I shall
let you know the upshot if the company replies.

However, I should like to encourage you all not to feel too depressed or
helpless about this matter.  Actually, the members of INDOLOGY form a
fairly powerful lobby.  There are about 530 of us at the moment.  If we
agreed each to write a letter to this company, criticising their practice
and promising not ever to use the company's services now or in the future,
and to discourage all our friends, universities, and libraries from ever
using this company, I'm sure the effect would be devastating.  Even if
only half of us did it.  An influx of letters to this effect from all over
the world would be sure to have the effect we desire.

There are several other things we could do too, like providing a competing
but cheaper service, and so forth.

However, let's not do anything hasty until we know more about what is
going on, and the exact terms on which the disks are being offered, etc.
It might turn out to be a genuinely helpful service by someone
well-motivated but slightly misguided.  Actually, that is my best guess at
what is going on.  I mean, Donald Trump would hardly start selling
Sanskrit classics, would he?

All the best,
Dominik

--
Dominik Wujastyk               Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine
email: d.wujastyk at ucl.ac.uk          183 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE, England
<URL: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucgadkw/>                    FAX: 44 171 611 8545