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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Publishers are now much less likely to allow authors to retain online rights than they used to be. Some (e.g. Palgrave) refuse to print at all unless they also have the rights for a possible/eventual e-book. The more viable it becomes to publish online, the more interested publishers are in controlling the option. As someone who deals constantly with the copyright issue, may I remind everyone that copyright belongs to the person who made the image, unless the original object is classified as "flat art", in which case the US courts regard the photo as being in the public domain. (Perhaps others can speak to the international situation.) But if you look back at your old purchase/license documents, you will often find that you agreed to use an image only in a particular publication in a particular year/from a particular press. If that is the case and you use the image in another way, then you are breaking your contract with the image provider, and if the institution involves finds out and cares, you could be in major trouble. I too worry about what will eventually happen to my (and others') archive(s). I was called in to consult about one slide collection that a scholar had left to his university, and found that it had been so badly stored that most of the images had deteriorated beyond salvage. I am of course digitizing my own photographs, but that simply defers the problem. If I stop paying my web-host's fee, my web site will disappear. I keep a full back-up, so it could be restored, but that would only happen if someone made the effort (which I could presumably not do from the Beyond). And the high-res versions are in my personal archive, but only there. A friend recently suggested that hosting such sites might be a good project for some of our scholarly societies (Medieval Academy, International Society for Medieval Art, etc.). Anyone else think that this might be a good idea? best, Genevra On 5/30/2012 2:49 PM, Robert Kraft wrote: > medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture > > This is too rich and relevant a subject to bypass, although plenty of > other things are crying out for my time. Many years ago, as a tenured > professor in a research institution, I decided to do all my future > publication online in electronic form on my website. There would be > some traditional hardcopy publication as well, but it would be > "seconcary" to the online materials. Thus if I was asked to sign > publishing contracts that protected the publisher's rights to the > hardcopy material, I always made sure that my own right to the online > version was protected, and I made sure to edit any contractual wording > that might present problems. This approach worked every time, even > with publishers such as Brill -- so much so, in fact, that I still > haven't found time to get all the online stuff up to date (e.g. a > recent hardcopy volume of updated reprints of some of my older > publications is still not fully available online as such, although > most of the older publications are individually available, although my > contract for the hardcopy version permits me to make everything in it > available online). In short, my own experience does not identify > publication rights as a major problem. > > But a more serious problem, I think, is whether I can put online the > manuscript images that I have collected in a lifetime of study of > various texts -- materials not yet available from the various owners > (museums, libraries, etc.). I have lots of microfilms, microfiches, > and photos that have been used in my research and could easily be > digitized and put online if I took the time to do so. I don't know > what the legalities are -- most of it was obtained (usually by > purchase) in the pre-internet days when the possibility of such > sharing was not an issue. I'm not going to ask permission individually > from all the "owners" and > am not even sure that I could still identify all the sources. In most > instances, I doubt that anyone would care enough to raise problems, > but on the other hand I don't want to spend my remaining days fighting > legal battles of that sort if the unexpected legal challenge(s) resulted. > > I've also worried some about how to keep such materials available > after I die and my institution cancels my internet site. There are > some promised "permanent" solutions, but whether and how long they > will survive is still not clear. Of course, as libraries make the > transition to becoming repositories for such digital materials, the > situation might become more stable. And some stuff makes its way to > "mirror sites," but again, whether they will survive is unpredictable. > So I worry, and try to keep alert to developments. > > In short, the concept of having all that source material freely and > universally available in digital form is great, and I agree. But the > practical issues involved in relation to older scholarship and > collections can be daunting, so in Christopher's words, "good luck" to > us all. > > Bob Kraft, emeritus, UPenn > http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rak/kraft.html > ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html