Paul Callomon wrote:
> Their authors charge nothing for their time (often years spent in research and
> photography), and often make the initial investment from their own pockets.
Hello Paul,
This topic transcends that of conchology, and while being a tyro when
it comes to shells, no one in the world knows more than I about the
coinage of the Coriosolitae (a Celtic tribe in western France, of
about two thousand years ago), I have also been acknowledged as a
leader in Iron Age numismatics generally, but especially regarding
typological methods, and the interpretation of pre-Roman iconography.
Probably boring to most conchologists and the public in general -- but
a passion for me!
Your statement quoted at the top of this post is very true, but we all
live with this fact. I spent ten years, five days a week, 8 to 4 pm
writing a book and raising my daughter (my wife worked and I stayed at
home). I never received a grant, and I even donated some of my time to
cataloguing the coin photographs of this tribe for the Institute of
Archaeology at Oxford University, and I spent a little time aiding the
Art Crimes unit at Scotland Yard (via the R.C.M.P. and Interpol) in
their ongoing investigation toward the recovery of millions of dollars
worth of these coins stolen from the Jersey museum some years earlier.
> The Internet represents a new and deadly threat to marginal publishing
> enterprises like those specialising in shell books.
No, increasing costs of paper, printing, and distribution, has led to
the growth of the Internet as a publishing medium. One company now
hosts more than 1000 on-line journals because of this expense. Without
the Internet, these journals would cease to exist. The subscription
costs of "dead tree versions" are sometimes outrageous: the $15,000
per annum for _Brain Research_ springs to mind. We (our company) are
currently working with a professional organization to move the papers
from their annual conference from paper to CD format. The savings are
staggering.
>the reverse of that particular coin is the ease with which copyright material can be
> pirated in cyberspace.
Facts cannot be copyrighted, but arrangements of facts can be. Many
subjects such as conchology and numismatics rely upon photographs to
effectively describe the objects of their particular disciplines. Who
could verbally describe the color patterns on a cowrie so that another
identical shell could be drawn from that verbal description? I, and a
few others around the world are working to make documentary
photographs understood as "visual data". The current copyright laws
impose unjust legal disability upon scholars for economical and
political motives.
A case in point is the British Museum. I have received a number of
photographs of a type of British Celtic coins from Oxford and couple
of private collectors, one of them the author of a book on the
subject. Permission has been given to publish these on the Internet as
a joint typological/metallurgical study that I am working on. One side
of one coin was missing from the records at Oxford. That coin resides
in the collection at the British Museum. I contacted them to ask for a
photographic enlargement for non-profit use. They were going to charge
me 15 pounds sterling for the photograph, an additional 15 pounds for
the enlargement of each side, and THEN they were going to assess
royalty charges for publishing on the net!
The hoard of coins that was the basis for my earlier study consisted
of more than ten thousand coins. Thankfully, Major N. V. L. Rybot drew
die reconstructions back in the thirties, and published the full set
of over 200 dies in the common domain, so I was able to work from
them.
Subsequent large hoards have never been photographically published,
and French museums have not only denied free access to these records,
but in some cases have denied free access to the coins themselves. If
I had to rely on photographs from the British Museum for the hoard
that I studied, then I would have had to come up more than a million
dollars for the pictures.
I explained this to the British Museum regarding the internet article
and said that I was unwilling to pay for data on the basis of my
principles. I asked them what statement they would like to have placed
on the empty space where the picture would belong in my study. I was
emailed by the keeper of coins who asked me to phone him, and being a
decent human being, he arranged for a polaroid at no cost to me
"courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum". And this statement
will be included with the picture when my study goes on-line.
>Thus the incentive to research,
> compile and publish a good book on any of these families will disappear
> altogether if authors feel that as soon as a copy falls into the hands of
> someone with a website, that person will distribute key images for free.
I thought that we had established that the motive for research was the
love of the subject, and that the icing on that cake was the respect
of one's peers. I always place my own documentary images into the
public domain, and I am very pleased when I see others using them. I
don't care if the public uses them for T-shirt designs. If you want
some free Celtic art, snag it off my site at:
http://www.writer2001.com/vmus.htm
I can't give away others' images, such as that of the Demareteion (see
the articles link in Pan magazine site quoted above) Permission to use
this was kindly given by Dartmouth College.
> A few years ago, everyone was talking about books on CD-ROM. Cheaper than
> paper to print, light and easy to send - the advantages seemed endless.
> Ever seen one?
Journals on CD-ROM are happening (we are doing this), but few people
want to read a book on the screen, and that is why we don't see many
books on CD.
We are about to bid on some technical work for the British Government
that involves hundreds of thousands of photographs to be published on
CD-ROM. Britain leads the world in this concept. I have communicated
for many years with Dr Philip de Jersey at the Institute of
Archaeology at Oxford. He is working to have some twenty five thousand
images of Celtic coins placed on line. Finally, we all must know of
Guido Poppes's remarkable on-line catalog of shells.
> The ascendence of web publishing would then mean not only that anyone
> without a computer by their side would be at a disadvantage
Given that free access to the Internet is provided at Public
Libraries, and that in some parts of the world the price of a book --
which means nothing to us bloated North Americans -- means the
difference between eating and starvation for many fine minds. The net
seems to me to be an advantage. Many small countries rely on email,
and one country is entirely on-line! Do we believe in the
democratization of knowledge, or is knowledge only for the elite?
Shall we punish kids for being born in the "wrong country"?
>Imagine citing something like this :
> Conus daucus sensu Zimmerman : website page, third link from top;
> downloaded third of March 1999 at 10 : 08 pm but since updated.
Correct forms of citation for the electronic medium do exist, and are
commonly used. For several useful links see:
http://www.cyberbee.com/citing.html
Even more ephemeral is the citation: Dr so and so (personal
correspondence), and this is acceptable. Download the text that you
are citing and both save and print it for future reference. No big
deal.
> With no hard copies to put in libraries, no publication dates and no ISBN
> numbers to trace them by, are websites really publications? Yes or no,
Yes, as are email messages to discussion groups. Many, if not all are
archived and can be cited as described in some of the articles linked
from the above site.
> if you can download and print out their images, they are certainly competition
> for books.
Actually, the net increases the sales of books, as it is easy to find
and get books delivered to your door through Amazon.com or Barnes and
Noble and others. I still buy books, but I find most of the titles
on-line and I buy from many different countries. I only read very
short books on the screen! A lot of web sites have the full text of a
book on the site, and sell copies of the book from the site.
> Do we want to face the consequences of the gradual undermining of
> conventional publication by websites? If this seem like overreaction, mull
> this over : a website can only be traced if its publisher wants it to be.
Not true. All domains are registered and their owners public
knowledge. In North America it is with Internic:
http://www.internic.net/
Type in writer2001.com to the search and you will see where I live!
Remailers exist for email, but web documents are traceable.
> What's to stop someone putting the entire contents of, say, Roeckel, Korn
> and Kohn's Conus book on a website without any contact address?
The url is traceable, it depends on the laws in different countries as
to what can be done. China can steal anything it likes and even print
it, no one can do anything about that.
The net provides us with the means to accelerate knowledge. My own
book is not yet published. It has three strikes against it:
1) It is specialized -- limited market
2) It is interdisciplinary -- editors are not
3) It is the most comprehensive study ever done on the subject --
expensive typesetting and printing!
I have been forced to send copies of the typescript for my peers to
work from, and I have the introductory chapter on-line. Yes, I want it
published, but the important thing is to get it out there. If
publishers would accept works that had already appeared on line, then
I would put it on-line. The prejudice against this medium is similarly
motivated to the prejudice that existed against the the print medium
in the fifteenth century.
Books are also ephemeral: I have searched for years for a work on
Celtic art in 5 volumes. It is so obscure it is only known by its
German abbreviation: AuhV. It exists only in one library in the US
(Berkeley) and they won't let me borrow it! I'm going to have to go to
California and photocopy it one of these days. I have done this with
other works, some nineteenth century volumes turning to dust as I
record them for posterity. The electronic medium can be more permanent
than the paper medium, and it is cheaper to reproduce and archive. Our
profit driven motives will be of no interest to future generations,
and I have no respect for any scholar who would not do research
because it didn't pay enough.
Regards,
John Hooker
--
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