First, I totally agree that noone should include any item from a book,
magazine, or internet page that is copywrited without going through the
proceedure to obtain permission for such use.  I also believe everyone
should be careful to attribute the authorship of articles and their
photos to the authors and photographers - - and do so relatively
prominently.
 
As to authors:  Whether to copyright or not is a personal decision
depending on the reason you are doing the work.  In Malacology, and many
other sciences there is little hope for real financial returns, so most
of the work is being done to make information available to others.  In
some cases, to entertain or amuse.  My personal recommendation is to
make your work not copywrighted if possible.  Making a positive
statement of it being not copyrighted is very desirable, and most often
with an add-on that the source and authors should be credited.
 
Generally speaking information obtained from a scientific book should be
usable provided that text and photos are not copied.  The text should
use the information as additional info, with other facts.
 
As to taxonomic articles publishing new names, I think authors should
allow use of photos (with credit).  Without that it is difficult to have
intelligent discussions as to why a name is valid or not, or to compare
various species.  If you use only your own photos of a species, there is
no assurance that your shell is named correctly, and the reader is not
able to come to a conclusion easily as to whether or not your ID is
correct.  I think in adding your name as author of a species name, you
should be willing to give up copyrights.
 
The Hawaiian Shell News positively did not go out of print due to
competition by the internet.  It went out due solely to economics of
publishing to a diminishing readership.  Costs rose due to the amount of
work involved and lack of free labor requiring paying for the
detailed layout, conversion of photos to graphics, etc.  COA is very
fortunate to have the wide source of workers they do, and which are
difficult to obtain in a localy based shell club.
 
Rather than harming the HSN by having no copyrights, that policy was
basic in its success.  It reached a wide audience world-wide, and
continues to be a source of information.  None of us ever earned any
money from the HSN.  COA's "American Conchologist" also follows this
policy and is responsible for the distribution of a tremendous amount of
information.
--
                     Aloha from Wesley M. Thorsson
Editor of Internet Hawaiian Shell News, a monthly Internet Publication
           122 Waialeale St, Honolulu, HI  96825-2020,  U.S.A
       http://www.hits.net/~hsn                 [log in to unmask]