Open access books: a personal anecdote

All I can say at the moment is, "D'oh!" Last week, I ordered a paperback copy of Yochai Benkler's book, the Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom. I had completely forgotten that when the book was first published, I had been excited by the news that you could read the book for free because the author had convinced his most excellent publisher (Yale University Press) that it was worth doing. And now I guess I've made the author's case that just because the book is freely available online, there will still be some folks willing to pony up $18 for the edition published by Yale.