On 11/12/2010 10:08 AM, Wanda Pease wrote:
. Think of all the books that were lost when the Danube flooded and
destroyed them.
<snip>
The items that are being so desperately protected for their copyright value are simply candles in the wind. Ask the museums in San Francisco about the work they are doing getting their collections up since they Know how vulnerable they are.
You appear to be confusing published books, periodicals, and photographs with original works of art. Most books, periodicals, and photographs published before 1923 in the US are already in the public domain, and a similar time period for other countries. For those published after 1923, thousands of copies were typically printed, and most are still available in libraries, on the used book market, etc. It is not a situation of one copy being available in the Library of Alexandria and about to be torched any minute.
Many books published after desktop publishing became the norm are also backed up as digital files. Many photos published after digital photography became the norm are backed up as digital files.
In addition to having all this post-1923 material available for your reading, you may well be able to reprint it if you get permission. You just won't necessarily get the permission free, because the copyright holders are entitled to compensation if they need it.
As for one-of-a-kind paintings, sculptures, etc.: I suspect most museums would love to have good photos of everything in their collections, accompanied by detailed, carefully researched descriptions. It's just that they often do not have the staff or the money to photograph everything. If you want to "make some kind of accommodation to get them out of the well," I suggest that you begin donating handsome sums of money to your favorite museums to enable them to carry out photography projects. I believe that you can, within reason, specify how you want the funds you donate to be used. You could also consider making the museum a beneficiary in your will.
Fran Lavolta Press Books on historic clothing www.lavoltapress.com _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
