Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>]

On 30/11/2006 12:27, Yitzhak Sapir wrote:
> On 11/30/06, K Randolph wrote:
>
>   
> > > > > http://jts.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/citation/os-XXXIV/136/385
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >           
> > > > Another article behind a firewall to keep the non-academician out.
> > > >         
> > > Actually, it is behind a "firewall" to keep the academician in business.
> > >
> > >       
> > LOL! The firewall that stopped me did not give me the option of buying
> > a copy. Anyways, the academician already has his salary.
> >     
>
> Try clicking on "Full PDF".  It quoted me a price of $23.  If this
> article didn't
> involve what appears to me to be a relatively insignificant issue, I might
> have been of more help.
>
>   
If these guys are really in it for the money, it might be worth their 
while to learn some elementary economics. If they charge $23 for a six 
page article which is more than 70 years old, they will surely get very 
few takers. If instead they charged only $2.30, I suspect that they 
would get not just ten but fifty times more buyers. And, since their 
overheads per sale are probably quite low, their income would be much 
increased - and as a side effect scholarship would benefit significantly.

But by charging what seems to me a deliberately prohibitive amount to 
casual purchasers, they suggest to me either that they are financially 
incompetent or that their real motivation is something more like what 
Karl alleged. In fact more probably they are trying to encourage regular 
rather than one-off subscribers, for (from 
http://www.oxfordjournals.org/theolj/access_purchase/price_list.html) 
they charge only $78 for an annual subscription including online access 
presumably to the whole journal series.


--
Peter Kirk
E-mail:  peter AT qaya.org
Blog:    http://speakertruth.blogspot.com/
Website: http://www.qaya.org/