1 reply to this topic

[Alawi]

I would like to make a suggestion regarding the exchange of books related to chemical engineering and the chemical industry. I will talk very frankly, there are thousands of books on the web nearly all of them are copied or scanned and then spread on the web for free, in most cases the copy rights are completely ignored. I do believe that this is wrong when taking this fact separately, but taking into account many other facts most importantly the fact that these books exist out there. Why don’t we organize the matter as follows:
Create an internal community that exchanges these books between its members since every one is more likely to have interest in one area or another different than the others. The initial motive for my suggestion originated from being a member of this forum, every day you can see great experiences from people whom have earned years of experience in the field of work so why not share this between us for free instead of paying to book companies.
Any way it is just a suggestion, it is more then sure that some might miss-use the idea but is that enough.

Kind regards

[Art Montemayor]

Alawi:

I concur with you on the free exchange of engineering information and experience. That is the basis and the core belief of these engineering Forums. However, it seems that you are skirting and avoiding the basic fact that engineering books – whether soft cover, hard cover, or electronic version – are copyrighted material. In other words, these books represent intellectual knowledge that the authors have agreed to share with readers in exchange of an equitable payment for the time, effort, and investment they have made to acquire, write, and publish the books. It is called fair compensation for services rendered.

There are engineering libraries that lend these books – under an agreement with the authors to do so. That is the direct and simple manner to obtain the information you seek. If you scan any engineering book into an Adobe document and then distribute it to other engineers or students (even for “free”), you are violating the author’s right to recover his cost and investment in writing that book because he loses the customer base he targeted for his revenue. By taking the author’s intellectual property and distributing it you are stealing from that author – since you are not a public library with an agreement to do so for public interest. What I have described is piracy, or stealing someone else’s property. Is that what you are advocating?

You state: “….every day you can see great experiences from people whom have earned years of experience in the field of work so why not share this between us for free instead of paying to book companies?” You have described what our Forums produce: sharing of engineering information and experience freely with others. But we don’t do it by circulating books – especially books that are copyrighted. You do not require books to share personal information or experience. You require books to TEACH the subject matter. Our Forums don’t teach the academic subjects; universities are supposed to do that. We merely share our personal knowledge and experience – something that most universities don’t do. I get the impression that you are confusing our Forums with an Academic institution – which we are not. We refer to books a lot on the Forums – but that is only because we are addressing engineers that are either in the process of being instructed or have already been instructed on the subjects of engineering knowledge.

I don't think the idea of distributing books electronically is legal, moral, or correct - unless approved by the author or publisher. However, if you are suggesting that some of us share our hard cover engineering books with others so that those deprived of the books can read them, perhaps this is OK. I would applaud the gift of engineering books from those that can afford them to those who can't. That is the basis of public libraries. Is that what you had in mind?