copyright and check lists

[Ron at]

Subject: Re: copyright and check lists

The first, and simplest, thing to do is see if the published document has
any © stipulations on it.  If so, they are to be followed.  If not, have
fun.

The recent *checklist* for North American butterflies by Opler and Warren
is © 2002.  People who put a lot of work into these are not apt to look
favorably on what looks like plagiarization of their years of work.  BUT,
others can come up with the exact same lists independently, so who is to
say if something was "taken" from a copyrighted list.  These are, after
all, just compilations of what already exists in the literature.  The
annotations and notes would be the "original" data in such lists and thus
what would most in need to be copyrighted.

Ron Gatrelle