Elsevier steals, then copyrights other people's free stuff

Reed Elsevier caught copying my content without my permission:

I was not asked for, and did not give, permission for my work to appear on that page, much less in that format. Needless to say, I felt a little slighted.

The website in question appears to be a custom version of the LexisNexis search engine. This particular version appears to be Elsevier's own custom version, intended for internal use. I don't have conclusive proof of that, but the title bar at the top of the page reads, "Elsevier Corporate", and the person who accessed my blog from that page had an IP address that's registered to MD Consult, which is an Elsevier subsidiary. My guess is that Elsevier's keeping track of news articles and blog posts that mention them, along with the context in which they're mentioned.

For-Profit Scientific Publishers and the Culture of Entitlement:

The relationship between publishers and the scientific community is not a partnership. It's parasitic.

And it gets worse, because the parasite doesn't even have the decency to try and hide what it's doing. Instead, the major academic publishers seem to feel that they are entitled to continue to make enormous profits selling scientific research to scientists at outrageously inflated prices.

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Were it not for their track history, I suspect that neither the Mad Biologist or I would have been quite as irritated when they "borrowed" some of our work for internal use. With the track history, though, seeing our words sitting, without proper credit, permission, or attribution, on a page that bears a prominent notice protecting their copyright becomes something more. It goes from being a minor discourtesy to being another symptom of the company's lack of respect for the people who do the bulk of the work to produce their profits, and provide the bulk of their customer base.

Reed Elsevier Is Stealing My Words:

I received an email from ScienceBlogling Mike Dunford that Reed Elsevier had excerpted one of my posts. No problem there--I like it when people read my stuff....except for one thing:

The fuckers copyrighted my words.

Copyright violation?:

Apparently, publishing companies don't always get permission for the materials they use, either. Mike Dunford caught Reed Elsevier copying his content without permission (from Stephen Downes).

Elsevier's New Open Access Policy...:

Although it is common practice within the blogosphere to quote liberally from other sources, we do this with the understanding that others may quote liberally from us. In fact, we hope that they will--as long as they give proper attribution. While we do this, our own material is made freely available, with running costs being paid for by advertisers (i.e., a pretty standard open access model) or just being footed by the blogger. Elsevier, on the other hand, not only reserves most of its material for paid subscribers, but actively fights the open access movement with insidious initiatives like PRISM.

Reed Elsevier Caught Copying My Content Without My Permission:

I'm including this link mostly because I'm not, you know, surprised. The stuff publishers want to ban us from doing is stuff they routinely do in-house, behind closed doors, where they think nobody will notice.

Elsevier Profits: $1,750 per minute - and growing? :

STM journal prices for the past few decades have risen far beyond inflation, and far beyond the ability of libraries to keep up. For long-term success, a business needs healthy, happy customers. This would also be a good success item to report, for Elsevier's new Corporate Responsibility Division.

Open Access Wars, part n:

As they say, read the whole thing....