[Taxacom] ZooBank reality check: scanning and copyright

[Frederick W. Schueler]

Richard Pyle wrote:
> 
> Consider this: It is my creative opinion that Centropyge flavicauda is a junior synonym of C. fisheri.

> ...then any computerized database that indexed the treatment by Pyle (2003) of C. flavicauda as a junior synonym of C. fisheri, would be in violation of copyright.

> Not being an expert in such legal matters, I'm certain that I'm being entirely naïve about all of this.  But I just wanted to parse out the "fact" from the copyrightable intellectual property.

* the problem here, as in so many interfaces of science with other
features of society, is the broader one of a conflict in value systems.
The intellectual property boffins profit from selling their (or others')
works for money, and thus obtain what they regard as status. Scientists,
on the other hand, obtain status from their work only through its
citation and discussion. Their income and influence both are increased
only by the status that comes through the widest possible dissemination
and citation of their work, so they always hope to induce its use by
others, not restrict it. The problems we're discussing here arise only
when the intervention of commercial publishers mixes up the two systems
of value.

fred.
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