Illegal CD copy

No one going to comment on my question about pricing?

Would people be happy to pay 50% of face value for a yearly top up DVD at around £25 for MEW which is what other model engineering mags charge and what price the first 1-280 issues?

Hi Neil, I for one would buy an ME and an MEW DVD if they were issued. Maybe if there was an interest survey ie "if the company offered a DVD of scanned ME and MEW from issue x to issue y would you pay z UK pounds?" to quantify the consumer interest. You might be able to get the firm interested if response was positive.

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My short answer is No

I subscribe to the paper edition of MEW and can therefore scan [for my own personal use] any of the content as-and-when needed.

Two other subscriptions are to the Horological Journal, and Antiquarian Horology ... both of which now provide free access [for members] to their digital archives.

On the microscopy side: 'The Quekett' previously sold back-issues on CD, but has taken the plunge and [at a bargain price] sells a searchable archive on USB stick.

Note: I fully respect that MEW's owner has the right to control publication of its 'assets' ... I merely cite these alternative models for consideration.

MichaelG.

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http://www.quekett.org/about/books

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 13/06/2019 16:10:30

At least one computer magazine (MagPi) gives away (free) their monthly magazine in pdf form as well as selling the hard copy.

I am not certain I am totally in sympathy with some of the posts in this thread as the general tone is that someone who creates something - be it a writer creating an article or a publisher creating a magazine is 'in the wrong' for selling that thing at a fair price.

The message I am getting is 'I wish to buy years of magazines on a dvd for very little money'

Buying ME in print costs me about £61 a year on subscription and I am happy to pay that. I have no doubt the publishers are happy to get their share of that too. If a CD was put out at the end of each year it would need to bring in I guess £20 to the publisher to be the equivalent. If each DVD was copied a couple of times for free the price would need to be £60 for the publisher to make the same amount of money as selling the DVDs. If copied more times it would need to be proportionally more expensive. (And that is assuming all copyright clearances could be obtained - and we have been told that they can't for older editions) So unless there is a cast iron way of preventing copying - and there isn't, it does not make economic sense to put out a DVD.

If you think that is far fetched a single digital copy of the Elektor magazine mentioned above is €7.50 every other month - three times the price of a single print copy of ME.

Like MichaelG suggested buy the magazines and scan for your own use only. You are legal and you have the scanned editions for the price of a blank disk - but don't ask for something which cannot easily be provided and which couldn't be provided at a cost that was fair to the publisher and reasonable to you.

This is sponsored though and not a commercial operation. I don't believe the print version has been available for long.

As someone who has had a few articles published, may I say that I'm in it for two reasons:

1. For the joy and delight of seeing my name in print as the author, especially as I have no training in engineering, nor of writing technical articles; and,

2. To support a choral society that I was a member of for 21 years until hearing problems put paid to my singing. In this instance, the payments go directly to the society, and I make nothing from it.

I suppose it could be argued that I am doing it for the money, albeit to support the choral society. On a personal basis, I don't need the money, hence the choral society benefitting.

Peter G. Shaw

YouTube pay a derisory amount to the artists whose work they host but the sheer volume of traffic may make it worth allowing their work to be posted on there. The fact that some popular Model engineering titles go out of print for long periods probably means there is not a fortune to be made from the royalties. Ian Bradley’s Myford lathe handbook was fetching silly money on eBay for a long time before it was reprinted. Len Masons Minnie Book still fetches a tidy sum.

Mike

I'm not certain that making a living or adding to a pension is quite doing it for the money ........

No one could deny that LBSC was a small locomotive enthusiast even if he lived off his writings and equally Don Young retired from marine engineering and wrote for ME as well as his own magazine.

ditto ditto Keith Wilson and Tubal Cain

That’s alright Freddie,

We will all read MG’s comments and probably have a good laugh at the content - at your expense.

This thread started out about “illegal copying”. It is just that - not LAWFUL.

Comprendez? End of story, really. Your ilk may get away with it - until someone deems it worthwhile to take them to court for damages. Damages may well be sufficient to deter that individual, as further infringement would likely incur even heftier costs as a serial offender. Out of copyright is fair game to copy - it keeps the publication in circulation - as it is LAWFUL. Denying a legitimate author his/her legitimate dues and making a personal profit from that action is reprehensible. I don’t like thieves.

I don't know enough about the subject to know whether you are right or wrong but I have a good idea. I do however think your manner of expressing yourself is unnecessarily rude.

In fact I have seen much better behaved Trolls.

Tim Rowe

At which point I'm going to lock this thread as I have to go out and work so can't keep an eye on it full time, Neil may unlock if he is active today.