Gus Wirth wrote:
At 11:28 11/29/2005 -0800, Lan Barnes wrote:
On Tue, Nov 29, 2005 at 11:23:48AM -0800, Tracy R Reed wrote:
To me, copyrighting maps is like patenting the genome. The surface of
the world is what it is. Additionally, we've all already paid for the
satellite photos through our taxes.
Except that maps are NOT photographs. They are more of a cartoon, with
extra information provided by the mapmaker. Things like street names,
historical markers and distance legends don't show up in photos.
And the government has done all the work for you: Bureau of the Census,
USGS.
It takes a lot of work to produce a good map. The problem with realizing
this is that they are so cheap and commonplace.
And even free: Bureau of the Census.
Very few maps are based on satellite photos. Most maps start as photos from
a low-level flyover in a light plane. Tracy can elaborate. Then all that
has to be pieced together, scaled appropriately, rendered to the cartoon,
labeled and verified.
Besides, even photographs are copyrighted. Otherwise Ansel Adams would
never have been able to make a living.
>
> Gus "Even more familiar with charts" Wirth
Bad example. Ansel Adams would have been able to make money without
copyright laws, the same way a sculptor or fine furniture craftsman can
make money without the existence of copyright laws. What made Ansel
Adams photographs great were his original prints. He was an unparalleled
master in the darkroom. Even if there were no copyright laws, you would
not be able to reproduce an Ansel Adam photograph. Not even if you had
his negatives.
Adams did not process all his negatives himself, he had apprentices. But
they were only allowed to do so after years under his tutelage, so not
just anyone can reproduce the final product.
Like any great artist, what allowed Ansel Adams to make money was a
combination of artistic talent, vision (Adams never cropped), timing,
the development of a rigid, and repeatable methodology applied to
processing both intermediate (film) and final (print) product, and hard
work, not copyright law.
Oh, and all his prints are signed and numbered.
--
Best Regards,
~David "Even more familiar with photography" Allen
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