Why not publish out of print science books on the net ?

habshi wrote:
The top physics book has got to be
'Scholarship Physics' for those wanting to study for S levels demanded
by Cambridge and Oxford and other top universities . Its now no longer
in print but Nelkon like Asimov is a superb explainer.
Why not publish these immortal books on the net for all
humanity , let them be paid for by the govt or some rich guy like Bill
Gates .

The technology exists now where you can print books at any number of
copies as you wish, depending on need, such as 5, 10, 100 etc. This is
used for example by "self-publishing" printing services.
Then if the author of an out-of-print book maintained the copyright he
could have his book re-printed by one of these services. Sometimes the
copyright of an out-of-print book will revert back to the author from
the publisher but this doesn't happen automatically. It has to be
specified in the contract.
Here's one such printing service that offers some pretty decent
science books, but there several others out the

Lulu.com - Self Publishing
http://www.lulu.com/author/create.php

A couple of books on this site that look interesting to me:

The Theory of High Speed Guns.
http://www.lulu.com/content/135935

Introduction to Plasma Physics: A graduate level course.
http://www.lulu.com/content/232435


Bob Clark