This week saw us looking at Open Access and the general idea of making content free over the internet. My post was centred around the debate of having scientific journals and publications being made free to view online. I read on Chris‘s about making games and movies free, which wasn’t what I thought it was. Chris argued how the use of piracy was seen as a form of competition by firms, in which websites like Spotify and Netflix came to be. The use of advertisements to try curb piracy-related activity had no effect whatsoever. Chris also argued that more people would start using things like Spotify and Netflix over piracy because the services are quite convenient for how much they cost. Yet true, I personally disagreed to this as when given the chance to watch any movie or download any song for free, why would someone pay a little bit of money per month for a service? Even though it is a small amount, the chance at free content isn’t something people would pass on.
Nick‘s blog, like mine, talked about the pros and cons of Open Access with scientific journals. I learned from his blog that Open Access is very beneficial for universities and students who don’t have the required funds to publish in well-known scientific journals. However, because its free, the publisher of the scientific journal will not earn as much money as someone who has published their work into a well-known journal.
Open Access, like many of the topics in this module, was something I wasn’t very familiar with before researching and writing about it. Open Access is something I see as very beneficial for younger and less experienced people who want to make an impact with their research.
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