[Foundation-l] The reality of printing a poster

[Jussi-Ville Heiskanen]

Gerard Meijssen wrote:
> Hoi,
> I selected a great picture from Commons. I loaded it on my memory stick. I
> went to a copy shop and had it printed in poster format for little money. No
> fuss. I did not even need to bring it on a memory stick, I could have
> downloaded the picture at the copy shop. This is the real world. There is
> nothing stopping anyone from printing one of the great pictures from
> Commons.
>   

I think this is the great thing about our emerging age. You
don't need to own a printing press to be able to make a book.
(of course before the printing press you needed to have a
scribe to make a book, but that it very much by the by)


> With all the talk about the French chapter's cottage village solution to
> printing, the reality is that printing a poster is not a problem anyway.
> Given this reality, what are we talking about. What do we think we
> realistically achieve. You have to appreciate that the poster has to be
> shipped, there has to be something for the French chapter and all the
> overhead you think up has to be paid.
I don't think it is at all a bad thing that wikimedias chapters
would have to face all the same obstacles as other re-users,
and of course the obstacles are all there for a reason, and
traditional copyright would not only be worse, but would make
production of something like wikipedia essentially impossible.

>  In another thread all kinds of
> difficult theories are discussed about atribution. The more complicated it
> is in the real world, the more likely it is that the chapter will end up
> with very little indeed and that all this talk will only kill a goose that
> lays "golden" eggs.
> Thanks,
>   

I completely agree with your point, but I think you have grasped
the wrong end of the stick. It is precisely the pride people feel
about contributing and being acknowledged as contributing to
our great charitable work, that is laying the golden eggs.
Attribution is not a killer, it is what gives our projects life.


Yours cordially,

Jussi-Ville Heiskanen