BRIDGING THE GAP DEC. 12, 1974 - DEC, 12, 1994 Sept. - Dec. 94
THE FOLLOWING IS TAKEN with Permission FROM TIMBERLINE VOLUME V NUMBER 2 APRIL
1-9-2A The Newsletter of the Upper Ottawa Valley Genealogical Group, P.O. Box 972, Pembroke, Ontario K8A 7M5, page 94-27
TIlMELY TIPS, ON COPYRIGHT
COPYRIGHT LAW says that it is illegal to photocopy pages from books unless the author has been dead for more than fifty years. We may all be guilty of taking advantage of the ease of the photocopier in acquiring copies of information found in books but we may, after all, be doing ourselves a disservice. Genealogists and local historians often produce books of great value to researchers at great expense and little profit to themselves. They depend upon the sale of their books to fund further efforts. Researchers, on the other hand, are tempted by the lower expense of copying a few pages rather than purchasing the entire publication. Illegal photocopying tends to prevent what might otherwise be the sale of a book. Lower sales mean fewer future publications and - well, add up the real cost for yourselves. [based on a tip provided by Carol Bennett McCuaig]
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I would add too the above tip that when material is copied from a book, in whatever manner,
for whatever reason the user should have the decency & fairness to fully acknowledge that material by
[a] listing name & address of author, [b] full name of title, [c] date of publication, [d] page. numbers copied, [e] not alter contents of material copied in future use, at minimum. [AWF June 1994)
‘Genealogists and local historians often produce books of great value to researchers at, great expense and little profit to themselves.' An example of what this statement means from a cost point of view of the author is as follows;
In 1992 1 published Fr. John's Diary, It has 341 pages, presently it sells for $55.00 postpaid per copy
The cost to print & bind with cover 1 copy of Fr. John's Diary is at least $18.50 to $20.00.
1 have printed 77 copies of Fr. John's Diary between October 1992 to June 1994 at a cost of approximately $1480.00 plus cost of gas for about 10-13 round trips to Cornwall, of about 50 miles each. Of these 77 copies, 1 is a master, 25 were sent out as complimentary copies , cost $487.50 plus shipping of about ,$50.00 = $537-50, leaving 44 sold which brought in $1183.14 plus cost of mailing of about $85.00, leaving 4 copies on hand & 3 out on consignment. This is an example of the cost of one of the many titles we have produced In these past 20 years.
Thus for the production of Fr. John's Diary, I am about $300.00 in the red for the printing of 77 copies plus between $8,520.50 to $12,787.50 for production time costs.
When a person for whatever reason copies a page from any one of the titles we have published in what ever manner, be it handwritten or photocopied, at an average production time for us per page of 2.5 hours, our loss of income is between 25 & 40 dollars, at minimum.
Due to the nature of the work Genealogists & historians do and the material they have to use, we have to be one of the MOST blatant abusers of the Copyright laws. If we applied the copyright laws evenly and to the letter to all the requests we get for help, or in the books we produce there would be few people who would actually end up getting help. How many people can actually have access to original sources which are old enough not to fall under the copyright laws.
Another statement from the above tip on copyright "it is illegal to photocopy pages from books unless the author has been dead for more than fifty years." Now I started this work In 1971, my 1st book was published in 1976. 1 am going on 54 years of age, I have under normal circumstances 50 years or so to live, thus this statement means as applied to me, that no legal photocopying, unless I give written permission, of our works can be done until after the year 2094. This Information needs to be preserved for the use of others & for the future generations. This is one of the reasons why co-operation & communications are so Important. Something to think about. [AWF 6.94]
TIMELY TIPS ON COPYRIGHT
From Bridging the Gap Vol 7 # 4 LAST ISSUE 99