From: Kate Mahoney (kateb@paradise.net.nz)
Date: 09/25/03-04:10:32 PM Z
I agree wholeheartedly - it's mean but common for people to assemble
knowledge and then profit by it - but there is a small problem - if we
share techniques, and somebody goes away and works, partly using
information from the list (say as a component of what they are doing) and
then decides to publish a book, it's debateable whether it's morally wrong.
And certainly in copyright terms it's not legally wrong because the book
itself is the author's work. We're all familiar with "assembly" texts of the
past with whole blocks of information simply lifted from others' work. These
have become notorious for containing misinformation (see numerous postings
about gum on this list :) !) Let's hope that any would-be modern plagiarists
share a similar fate. Btw John Barnier's "Coming into Focus" is a good model
of how shared information can be published - with full authorship to the
artist.
Kate Mahoney
----- Original Message -----
From: "Katharine Thayer" <kthayer@pacifier.com>
To: <alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca>
Sent: Friday, September 26, 2003 2:37 AM
Subject: Re: Copyright
> Last thoughts on the copyright question:
>
> Dave asked if there have been misappropriations of material from this
> list; Judy's reply is informative in this regard.
>
> But the reason I brought it up is because a friend whispered to me that
> someone may be planning to publish a manual on gum printing that draws
> heavily from information shared on this list. I have shared a lot of my
> knowledge about gum printing here and would hate to have to regret my
> generosity; I would hate it not only for myself but for all of us,
> because if experts can't share their knowledge here without fearing
> that it will be packaged and sold in a form not of their choosing,
> that's the end of us as a useful forum.
>
> I realize full well that if the person decides to do that, there's not
> much I can do about it, but the question for the would-be thief
> shouldn't be "Can I get away with it?" but "Is it right?" or even more
> to the point, "What kind of community do I want to live in?" There are
> neighborhoods, for example, where you can't leave anything out, like
> say lawn furniture, because anything out where others can see it will
> be sure to be stolen. That's not the kind of neighborhood I want to live
> in, and I've noticed that even people who steal others' stuff don't like
> to have their own stuff stolen.
>
> And it's also possible that my informant was misinformed, (a
> misinformant) in which case there's no problem, but I still think it's a
> good idea for us to remind each other now and then of how we want and
> don't want the information we share here to be used.
>
> Katharine Thayer
>
>
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