Frances Pinter is the publisher at Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of the Bloomsbury Publishing Group, which publishes titles in the social sciences and humanities; Bloomsbury Academic both markets the books commercially using print on demand technology and also provides free digital versions with Creative Commons licenses for non-commercial use.[1]
She is a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics, where she conducts research into how active participants in global civil society frame the reform agenda of intellectual property rights.[1][2] Previously, she served as a consultant to Creative Commons and wrote an article explaining its goals for Writers Magazine 2008.[3]
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Frances Pinter set up her own publishing company, Pinter Publishers, in 1973, at the age of 23, which focussed on the social sciences and is believed to be the first British publishing company owned by a woman.[4] In 1985 she was joined by Iain Stevenson who founded the environmental imprint Belhaven Press in 1986 and acquired the humanities publisherUniversity of Leicester Press.[4] Belge). Frances Pinter, 2009. Web. Accessed 22 March 2009.</ref> Belhaven Press was sold to John Wiley & Sons in 1993 and Pinter Publishers itself disposed to Cassell shortly afterwards.
In 1994 financier and philanthropist George Soros hired her to become the head of his Open Society Institute's international publishing program, whose goal was to support publishing and education in Central and Eastern Europe after the fall of Communism.[4][5] She established "The Centre for Publishing Development," which became part of the "Information Program" (whose staff are based in Budapest, London, and New York), a later initiative of the Open Society Institute.[6]
From 2002 to 2006, she was CEO of International House Trust, which owns a London-based language school as well as a 50% share of International House World Organisation Ltd.[7] She is a trustee of Redress, a charity focussed on helping torture survivors.[8]
She was also project leader of Publishing and Alternative Licensing Model of Africa (PALM Africa), a project based in Uganda and South Africa funded by the IDRC.[9][10] The goal of the project, according to Andrew Rens, in comment posted in a blog hosted by the Shuttleworth Foundation, is to study whether flexible licensing arrangements (such as Creative Commons) are viable models for local publishers, and what business models emerge from this approach.[11]