Re: AIS: Copyrights

From: John Montgomery <monashee@junction.net>

At 04:33 PM 98-11-12 -0800, Bill Stone wrote:
>must consider all. Do not get me wrong I am all for a data based R &
>I . I feel it will come but I do not believe that because I have a
>computer everyone has the availibilty to have one. We have the
>tendency to think of ourselves only in this Modern Age.   My apologys
>I don't want to offend:     Bill    wstone@volcano.net

Cerainly no offense taken.

I guess I need to explain what I said a bit better. I would never advocate
the REPLACEMENT of the books by an electronic registry. I have the books
and would still wish to have future books. The way prices are heading,
however, it may not be long before a low end computer will cost about the
same as a full set of registry books. I have been using computers for 31
years and when it comes to a choice of getting the same information from a
book as from a computer screen, I will take the book every time.

My comments on copyright were not to imply that anyone was free to copy the
R & I information. That is a choice of the copyright holder. For example,
the "free" operating system 'Linux' (which may yet make Bill Gates a poor
man) is copyrighted but it comes with the notice that anyone is free to
copy it and distribute it as they wish, so long as they do not charge for
it. The AIS could certainly take this position with the R & I information.

Incidentally I have checked out the web site for the copyright law here in
Canada and copyright is automatic. As soon as material is written, the
creator holds a copyright on it. Therefore this post is copyrighted here
with no action on my part. Similarly a photo is given protection. I wonder
if laws in the US are the same.

John and Sharon are absolutely correct that the design of a good database
is not a trivial thing. I have from time to time played around with setting
up useful tables and have not been satisfied with the results so far. It is
the most important and probably the least well done component of most data
management systems. Even so, much can be gleaned from what might be termed
a text database. For efficient use however it is important that fields be
defined and the data entered accordingly. Perhaps one of the computer gurus
on here could write an engine which would parse the entries and place the
data in the appropriate fields. The electronic lily db is set up with
fields and works well for certain data but the description field is
difficult to deal with.

I rambled again so in summary; I for one want the R & I books continued. If
the information was on a CD, I would buy that. I also think that publishing
it on the web site would be enlightening for many others. Those things are
all possible. A proper database is possible also but don't hold your breath.

A book lover :-)

John Montgomery
monashee@junction.net
Vernon  BC  Zone 5 


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