[Coco] The Time Has Come

[James Hrubik]

Remember?  Volume 12, Number 10?  That was the issue I scanned for  
Mike Harwood and sent to the project.  The paper original is still on  
the shelf here.  The folks I feel have been damaged by Mike's  
precipitous quitting of the project are those who sent him their  
copies to be scanned; I wonder if he will send them back?

Never mind; Harwood has joined S. Disney and others in the CoCo  
Mythology.

So, aside from those who sent their physical copies of Rainbow to be  
used in the project (assuming they never get them back again), who  
has been harmed by all of this?  Claiming some sort of damage, to me,  
appears quite specious.

In retrospect, I think we have gained some things, if we don't get  
our shorts in knots.  For one, I learned much about .pdf quality and  
file sizes (yes, I know that is not really "on-topic", but it was  
valuable nontheless).

Before the Harwood project started, people had their individual  
copies of Rainbow, just like me.  They may not have had a complete  
set, and for the most part, the magazines simply gathered dust.   
Occasionally, something was remembered, an article was retrieved, and  
life went on.  People made occasional scans of their copies, and if a  
fellow CoCoNut knew of the scan and requested a copy of the scan, it  
was usually provided at no charge. (Don't ask me for scans of Rainbow  
issues; I have only the one scan mentioned above, and it is a 9 meg  
file which my mailbox will not handle, and the only way I was able to  
send it to Harwood was by direct ftp upload to his site.  Sorry about  
the run-on sentence.)  Really, has anything changed?

Why engage in flame wars, other than the fact that some people have  
assumed that they are losing the chance to get something for nothing  
and it irritates them that they might have to actually do some work  
contributing (without pay, might I add!!) to share in the spoils?   
Them that works, eats.  That is why I encourage the efforts of those  
who actually make stuff and charge for it.  Mark and Boisy and Roger  
and all the others who do their work and ask for some small payment  
are simply exercising their rights.  Harwood (with respect to the  
copies he personally scanned) possibly saw some hope of being  
remunerated for his scanning work.

We have lost nothing as a community by the withdrawal of the Harwood  
project.  Some have possibly lost as individuals by their  
contribution to it, but those who contributed nothing certainly lost  
nothing.  Harwood saw an opportunity to make some small change and  
took it.  His response with regard to reporting copyright violators  
(if it was actually in his contract) was probably a mixture of fear  
that he could be sued, and aggravation that his work, which he  
expected to make a token amount from (despite all protestations  
otherwise), would suddenly yield less money if rogue digital copies  
were accessible somewhere else.

So, let's step back and turn off the flame throwers.

Those who have digitized copies of _anything_ for their personal use  
can possibly inventory what they have and let the community know  
somehow.  If I have a book on my shelf, and tell the world that it is  
there, and a friend asks to borrow it, that is between the two of  
us.  Yes, I know there is a difference between my giving him my only  
copy and my giving him a copy while I keep the original, and that is  
something the two of us have to sort out.  (Will he give it back when  
he is done with it?  Or will he have passed it to a third party  
without my knowledge?  Digital libraries have distinct advantages and  
disadvantages.)

Legality and morality are two different concepts.  Much of current  
copyright law can be viewed as immoral.  The intent was simply to  
make sure that the author of an original idea had the opportunity to  
reasonably profit from it.  The actual effect, when Congress diddled  
with it, was to stifle the sharing of knowledge.  Each has to wrestle  
with the morality of his actions, and proceed according to the  
dictates of his conscience.  No matter what you do, someone,  
somewhere, will hate you for it.  Sic semper natura humanorum -- or  
something like that.

Onward, upward, CoCo, and caveat emptor to all!!


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