Ohio University Professor Warns Authors About New Print Technology

Contact: Michael Bugeja, special assistant to the president, (740) 593-2329 or bugeja@ohiou.edu; Thomas Hodson, special assistant to the president (740) 593-1804 or tsh@frognet.net; or Constance Davis, assistant professor, E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, Ohio University, (740) 593-9808 or davisc1@ohio.edu

Note to editors: A photo of Michael Bugeja can be downloaded from the Web at: www.ohiou.edu/news/pix/BUGEJA_MICHAEL.JPG

ATHENS, Ohio (March 26, 2001) -- Authors had best bone up on a new book-making technology called "print on demand," which complicates publishing contracts because a work will never go out of print, says author Michael Bugeja in the cover story of the March 30 issue of The Chronicle Review.

Print on demand means just that. A work is stored electronically on a disk. When someone wants to buy a copy, in goes an order to a book-making machine and out comes a book for packing and shipping.

For many authors the technology is a godsend because their books will be available for future generations. But for others in academe, Bugeja writes, the technology raises ethical and legal issues, some of which are so potentially serious, they can impede a professor's productivity.

Publishers hail the technology because it eliminates warehousing costs. Scholars of books with long shelf lives -- especially in such genres as art history, memoirs, creative writing, and anthologies and other compilations -- also benefit because their works will be available whenever someone needs a copy. In the past, these books would have gone out of print because standard printing costs were too high to justify new print runs.

However, the technology is a nightmare for authors of works requiring regular updates or new editions, including textbooks in engineering, science, medical science, social science and, ironically, new media and information technology, Bugeja writes.

Publishers are under no obligation to approve new editions, especially if a work has not sold as many copies as marketers had anticipated. In such a situation, Bugeja explains, a book used to lapse out of print, with all rights reverting to authors. Then the authors could revise and resell their books to new publishers and continue their research.

This practice benefited professors, in particular, because tenure and promotion usually are tied to publication output.

"Not only are these professors prevented from updating their editions," Bugeja says, "they often are prohibited from writing any new books based on their research." This happens because standard contracts typically contain a clause that states the author cannot write on the topic again until the original work goes out of print.

"Because the book will never go out of print," Bugeja says, "the author may not publish a book-length work again in his or her specialty or area of research."

Bugeja uses Albert Einstein as an example to illustrate the impact of the new technology on some researchers. "Imagine if Einstein were prohibited from writing any more books after his first work in 1907 on the principle of relativity. That affects progress, especially in the sciences," Bugeja notes.

He also fears that textbooks in the medical sciences, which usually require regular updating, may fall prey to marketing cost analyses. "In other words," he explains, "publishers may not ask medical experts whether a work needs to be revised or updated because procedures have changed or have been advanced. Instead publishers may ask marketers to analyze demand for the book."

In the worst case scenario, the publisher not only will refuse to allow a new edition but also will keep selling the old edition and not return rights to the author, thereby silencing that author in his or her specialty simply because there is no definition anymore for "out of print."

"That," says Bugeja, "may be unconstitutional because copyright provisions were put into place to advance the arts and the sciences. This clearly does not do that."

Professors may suffer a worse fate. If they publish in a narrow scholarly discipline, they may be prevented from publishing any subsequent book-length work in their specialty, effectively ending their research. "That may impact their tenure and promotion and, potentially, affect their livelihood," Bugeja says.

His essay, "The Fine Print of 'Print on Demand,'" explains what authors can do if caught in this dilemma. Bugeja also quotes Ohio University professors Constance Davis and Tom Hodson, who teach media law at the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism. Hodson, also an attorney, has represented professors in contract disputes with publishers over use of print on demand technology.

Hodson notes that in the past academic authors entered into contracts without knowledge of technological advances. Neither did they seek legal counsel. "Now," he says, "the writers are paying the price by having certain technology clauses in their contracts interpreted against them. They never dreamed, for example, that technology would enable publishers never to have a work 'out of print.' "

Bugeja, special assistant to President Robert Glidden and a journalism professor, is author of 17 books. His latest, "Living Without Fear: Understanding Cancer and the New Therapies," is co-authored with Thomas Wagner, distinguished professor of molecular biology at Clemson University, and is due out later this year.

The story by Bugeja and the cover story concerning "Print on Demand" in the March 30 The Chronicle Review can be found online.