Andrew N
Active member
Hello all,
I don't want to step on any toes here and this is purely a thought exercise for now.
Some old guidebooks that have not yet been superceded, such as Northern Caves 1, are incredibly useful but have now been out of print for a number of years. Obviously it's not difficult to obtain a copy of these on eBay and most clubs have a copy or three so thankfully the information is not lost. As the years go on, however, it will get harder and harder to obtain.
What would be the copyright and ethical considerations with digitising the information contained within such books and making it freely available online, such as on a searchable database/website? Would the original authors of these books, as well as the publishing company, support this behaviour? Would it benefit the caving community at large?
I'm not talking about simply providing a PDF scan of the books, but rather lifting the information out of them, such as the cave locations, descriptions and length/depth information and allowing it to be viewed online on a dedicated website, and providing updated references/information/surveys where applicable if a cave has been extended since.
It is a project I am interested in doing but it seems it may be fraught with political implications and I totally respect that the information is the intellectual property of the people who produced it.
Thoughts welcome.
I don't want to step on any toes here and this is purely a thought exercise for now.
Some old guidebooks that have not yet been superceded, such as Northern Caves 1, are incredibly useful but have now been out of print for a number of years. Obviously it's not difficult to obtain a copy of these on eBay and most clubs have a copy or three so thankfully the information is not lost. As the years go on, however, it will get harder and harder to obtain.
What would be the copyright and ethical considerations with digitising the information contained within such books and making it freely available online, such as on a searchable database/website? Would the original authors of these books, as well as the publishing company, support this behaviour? Would it benefit the caving community at large?
I'm not talking about simply providing a PDF scan of the books, but rather lifting the information out of them, such as the cave locations, descriptions and length/depth information and allowing it to be viewed online on a dedicated website, and providing updated references/information/surveys where applicable if a cave has been extended since.
It is a project I am interested in doing but it seems it may be fraught with political implications and I totally respect that the information is the intellectual property of the people who produced it.
Thoughts welcome.