<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">David Gerard</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:dgerard@gmail.com">dgerard@gmail.com</a>></span><br>Date: Fri, Jul 17, 2009 at 10:42 AM<br>
Subject: [Commons-l] NPG issue - other interested parties<br>To: Wikimedia Commons Discussion List <<a href="mailto:commons-l@lists.wikimedia.org">commons-l@lists.wikimedia.org</a>><br><br><br>---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>
From: David Gerard <<a href="mailto:dgerard@gmail.com">dgerard@gmail.com</a>><br>
Date: 2009/7/17<br>
Subject: NPG issue - other interested parties<br>
To: Open Rights Group open discussion list<br>
<<a href="mailto:org-discuss@lists.openrightsgroup.org">org-discuss@lists.openrightsgroup.org</a>><br>
<br>
<br>
Apposite comment on this issue on my blog - other QANGOs that try to<br>
own the public domain:<br>
<br>
<a href="http://davidgerard.co.uk/notes/2009/07/13/has-anyone-been-in-touch-with-the-national-portrait-gallery/#comment-11708" target="_blank">http://davidgerard.co.uk/notes/2009/07/13/has-anyone-been-in-touch-with-the-national-portrait-gallery/#comment-11708</a><br>
<br>
===<br>
Roger Pearse Says:<br>
July 17th, 2009 at 1:41 pm<br>
<br>
Mr Webb,<br>
<br>
Your comments on the British Library are very apposite, if a little<br>
misconceived.<br>
<br>
The British Library has refused, solidly, for 10 years, to my certain<br>
knowledge, to digitise its collection of medieval manuscripts. It also<br>
refuses to allow almost anyone to access them. Since it is based in<br>
London, even people like myself who DO have clearance cannot in fact<br>
go there very often. I asked them to digitise 3 manuscripts, each of<br>
100 pages. I could photograph them in a day. They are quite sturdy.<br>
<br>
They refused to do so. I offered to photograph them. They refused.<br>
They agreed to photograph them only if I paid them £8,000. That’s £20<br>
per click of the camera. And they wouldn’t put them online then. They<br>
offered to allow ME to put them online, so long as I paid them £500 a<br>
year for the rest of my life.<br>
<br>
Yet the manuscripts have never been photographed at all! So, as you<br>
remark, some fool could go in and steal pages. But the BL view is<br>
better that, than that the images should appear on the web.<br>
<br>
Preservation means photography, and the creation of many copies of the<br>
images. To obstruct this is criminal.<br>
<br>
So why does the BL do this? Because they are making money by selling<br>
crude black-and-white (not even monochrome) images to scholars trying<br>
to make use of the texts at massive prices (hundreds of pounds).<br>
<br>
This seems to be the same motive as the NPG. Short-term greed, and the<br>
hell with the public interest.<br>
===<br>
<br>
<br>
- d.<br>
<br>
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