Addendum,
Eugene, and Daniel,
I've just seen Daniel's original message in this thread. It changes nothing
in my answer to Eugene. Astrologos says they are "copyright cleared" or
"public domain". Translated this means that they have bought copys of out of
print books and made facsimiles of them, and in all likelyhood with no
payment for the rights ("cleared" means they have checked to see if they are
going to get into trouble). But they obviously have made an investment in
this - equipment and skills to make a "real" book out of the copy. Referring
to my own comments, if I were to print my "facsimile" it would be rather
ugly. The curl of the pages showing, as I couldn't destroy a book I had to
return to the library.
Sorry to go on, but I remember a thread where Roman and others were
discussing rights to reproduction. If I can summarize that, there was the
question as to the rights of the library as well as the researcher. So let
us make a distinction as to library files. A manuscript in the library's
archives is one thing - one has to go there to view it, and get the
library's permission to copy it. A book on the open shelves is another, that
is by definition public. Copying that book on the shelves for personal use
is merely a matter of avoiding renewing it over and over. But doing so for
commercial purposes becomes another question. A parallel, I have bought CDs
of my harp favorites, and I always burn an extra copy (for my car, I keep
the original in the house). It is "single user", I can't be both in the car
and the house at the same time (at least not until I come to some "higher
plane").
Daniel, if what you want is the content, and that content is available in on
the shelves of a library then I see no legal, or moral, reason not to borrow
it and copy it yourself (if it is generally available). But if you want
something for the bookshelf then go to Astrologos, or some such, as that
seems to be what they are offering.
It is a fine line, Eugene has correctly implied that a cottage industry of
making facsimiles of rare texts could be impacted by generalized copying.
And I think it was Roman who correctly spoke of the effort required to find
the original source material. Both should be supported by paying for their
work, but when it is readily available and you are willing to put up with
the poor quality of home copying, then I wouldn't pay the price.
Best, Jon
----- Original Message -----
From: "Daniel Shoskes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "LUTE-LIST" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, April 30, 2004 2:26 PM
Subject: Astrologos
> I have been interested in getting a copy of Ness' Lute Music of Milano.
> The only bookseller that seems to have it is Astrogos, which makes
> (expensive) made to order reproductions (http://www.astrologos.org/).
> They also offer a version of the Jane Pickering lute book.
>
> Anyone deal with this company before? They have a no return policy, so a
> lousy product will make for expensive kitty litter.
>
>
>
>
>
