Hi Yong Peng,
From US to Thailand or Singapore I don't think people are too poor to buy a few imported books a year.Of course this is not the case for Cambodia and Laos.
Jon seems to assume people are too poor to buy dhamma book which is rather unacceptable for me.I bought saddaniti Burmese nissaya for 30 USD per volume.Mind you that my salary is not even 400 USD at that time.

However I don't read any of my dhamma books for four years.Just too boring for me .It seems unpratical to read dhamma where no one can tell the real dhamma  .Now I am more interested to do charity works.

--- On Mon, 12/29/08, Ong Yong Peng <palismith@...> wrote:
From: Ong Yong Peng <palismith@...>
Subject: [Pali] Re: Saddaniiti
To: Pali@yahoogroups.com
Received: Monday, December 29, 2008, 7:57 AM











Dear Teng Kee and all,



good to hear from you again, Teng Kee.



I just like to say that we should not infringe copyright of

intellectual properties, not just from a Buddhist perspective but also

as mutual respect we should show to fellow Pali academics and students.



OpenLibrary. org is a non-profit project with a database of public

domain books, though not all are full text and not all full text are

downloadable.



Google Books is a Google project to provide books viewing online.

There are public domain materials just like OpenLibrary. org. There are

also copyrighted materials made available through partnerships between

Google and the publishers. As far as I have seen, copyrighted

materials can only be viewed online.



Many Buddhist books published in Asia are usually done through

non-commercial or non-profit publishers. Some of these books end up as

free distribution materials one can pick up free or at the cost of

printing from temples or centres. Free materials are made available

through donations which covers the printing, usually the author and

publisher receive no royalties. Such is the long-held tradition in

Buddhist communities in Asia.



However, I agree with the popular notion, particularly in the West,

that it is important to maintain a quality publishing industry to

ensure quality books in the future. Copyright watchdogs are set up to

ensure the sustainability of the industry. Furthermore, I am 100% for

respecting copyright ownership, which I think there should be

unreserved respect and acknowledgment of others' ideas and creative

works, and fair use and support good books by buying a legitimate copy.



metta,

Yong Peng.



--- In Pali@... com, Ong Teng Kee wrote:



If some publisher spend money to publish saddaniti,there shouldn't be

any more free download online.I think the price is not too expensive.

I don't want to argue with Jon or anyone but please be reasonable.



























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