para wrote:
geni <geniice@...> wrote:
"A collection of rare maps of Africa, dating from 1530 to 1915, has been made available for free on the internet by Northwestern University in the US. " Is this something we should be storing too? I think we should at least make an effort to contact them about it...
The format with which they appear on the net makes them hard/very hard to copy. Contacting may be only option
Actually, they are not hidden at all and copying couldn't be much easier. Links to high resolution TIFF files of the maps are readily available on the information page of each map, after clicking on "More information". There are 113 maps, some of them on multiple sheets (files). I tried to download one and got a 8000x7000 TIFF of 100MB with a decent speed. I can't imagine why such archive files would be given if not for reuse.
I would not be inclined to have concern about the copyright of material on such a database. I'm sure too that we have enough collective techy smarts to do a decent job of getting good copies.
What I do wonder about is the ethical question around wholesale copying of another site filled with free material. They have a role too in whatever niche they find. They are already in compliance with our mission to keep such information free. They have a role in the open access market. There can be valid reasons for the wholesale copying.of these databases; preservation redundancy could be one. Still, just because an act is legal does not mean that that same act is ethical.
Ec