[A2k] Any examples/ any evidence?

[Alan Story]

Would anyone on the list have concrete and specific examples of books that
prove the following proposition:

Allowing free, open, and ongoing access (online) to the full text of a
commercially-published, non-fiction book does NOT hurt sales of that book
and, in fact, can (and does) stimulate sales of that book, especially if
the online version gets sufficient "buzz" on the Internet, in blogs, in
e-mail lists, etc.

Examples from anywhere on the globe appreciated. And the harder and more
specific the "data", the better.

There is one current examples of this phenomenon; see Levine and Boldrin's
book "Against Intellectual Monopoly"  -
http://levine.sscnet.ucla.edu/general/intellectual/againstfinal.htm

However, this book does not come out as a published book until July
2008...and so, to date, there is no evidence to gather about this book and
may not be for some months.

Please send to me ( acs3@kent.ac.uk) and if I get enough examples,
I will send a little report back to the list.

Thanks in advance,
Alan



Alan Story
Senior Lecturer, Intellectual Property Law
Kent Law School
University of Kent
Canterbury Kent
United Kingdom      CT2 7NS
acs3@kent.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)1227 823316