[Taxacom] Corrigenda and nomenclature

[Francisco Welter-Schultes]

Mike,
this is easy. By typewriting your hand puts every single letter 
individually to the paper, so you are handwriting and not printing 
the text. You can also use other methods. A pencil is only 
one method. Writing with your feet of mouth will also be 
considered as handwriting in the sense of this Article. Printing 
means that all letters are put at once to the paper, using a method 
that will automatically print the next sheet containing identical 
content immediately after the preceding sheet. 

Typewriting does not assure that copies are identical (Art. 8.1.3).

Also copies on demand are rejected (Art. 9.7). 

> I have been having this argument with
> a colleague about a typewritten, carbon-paper-duplicated (what I 
> call a) manuscript distributed in the 1950s, and he thinks it is 
> published, I say no.  
Your conclusion was in accordance with the Code. Art. 8.1.3 is clear 
enough. Carbon-paper copies do not assure "numerous" copies (only 
few copies are possible by this method). The copies are not 
"identical" because the ink gets substantially more blurry downwards. 
The typewritten text as such is not a publication. 
If carbon-paper copies would be considered as a printing method by 
the Code, this method would have been explicitely mentioned in Art. 
8.4. I agree with you that the work in question must be regarded as a 
manuscript.

If it is necessary to clarify this for your taxonomic work, 
because your opponent is working with the contrary assumption, you 
can ask the Commission for a declaration under Art. 89.1.1 confirming 
the interpretation of Art. 8 that carbon-paper copies do not 
constitute published work. You will almost certainly get a positive 
response.

Francisco


University of Goettingen, Germany
www.animalbase.org