“There’s lots of scientif— er, lots of evidence.”

I cant see labour being around for long but at the same time I dont think a government change will alter much as its the councils where this insanity stems from. All were teaching children is that adults are something to be feared; much like news paper stories teach middle aged plus people to be scared of all teenagers and the asbo generation.

This country has gone to the dumps.

So I had a closer look at the National Gallery as I could be sure that all of their collection was PD. Their initial digitisation if the primary collection (~2300 images ) was completed in 2003 at a cost of £382k. This figure includes equipment, operating costs, building works and staff costs. Then I queried the income earned directly by their picture library (the digital picture repository and database) for 2009 – £127k. This income is from ‘royalties’ based on 50% of the net sales value of products (faithful copies of PD works) sold via the National Gallery Company (a separate entity owned by the National Gallery Trust). This income is also distinct from money donated to the NG from either the National Gallery Trust (largely supported by gifts from the NGC) and direct payments from the NGC. Thus it becomes clear that the NG earned considerably more than the £127k for royalties during 2009. Let’s also not forget that they’re a publicly funded organisation with a grant of over £11 million.

I could go back and interrogate the figures for each year since 2003, but I can’t be bothered and I’m pretty convinced that the total returned will be significantly more than the initial outlay plus ongoing overheads. AFAICT the NG are profiting from PD works.

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/details_of_contracts_for_and_acc
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/initial_digitisation_costs

If I remember correcly Estonia has a National ID card system which allows the individual to authorise access to their records and also allows the individual to check who has accessed their record. Plus it isn’t like the UK one which holds everything, I think it’s more related to government benefits and health records.

1) First opportunity to cash in on the freedom to copy and resell a work legally. There are various mechanisms to command a price above “free” (e.g. collect in advance, gather periodic subscriptions, sell advertising etc.) Discovering one that works in a particular context is an exercise left to the entrepreneur

2) Good PR and possible customers from being in the winners’ list on the post-auction page (with optional contact info so that copy-seekers can find them). OTOH, those who don’t appear but profit from propagating liberated works may be publicly shamed… possibly bad for business.

3) Having a scarce, numbered original package when most copies are generic (or merely virtual). Some may find prestige in displaying proof of one’s patronage of the arts. Some may find collectible value in the scarcity and provenance of original disks (complete with inserts, extras etc.)

BTW, I am glad to see someone discussing my company. Now if I can just connect that discussion to qualified investors…

As for caching: well, in short, that’s up to you. *I* certainly don’t mind. The Royal Mail may. We’re in unfamiliar territory!

I have a question about ErnestMarples.com – am I allowed to cache the longs/lats I look up? Suppose I have a database of addresses with a column called postcodes – I then add two columns called longitude and latitude. I write some code to look up each postcode at your website and then populate my new columns accordingly.

Provided I don’t send my requests to you too quickly, is this acceptable usage of the system, or must I always go back to your website every time I want to get the long/lat for a particular postcode?

Keep up the good work, you guys deserve medals!!

Rich

It’s best feature is that everyone can make an honest, individual appraisal of their value of the work, with the confidence that they will not risk paying significantly above the market value.

Effectively the auction determines the equivalent retail price that would otherwise be attached to each copyright ‘protected’ copy.

LiberateIP is aiming the idea at copyright holders, e.g. as in the case of Blender (3D modelling software) where a large number of interested users successfully collected a fund for the copyleft release of the software. Today LiberateIP could be used to enable Michael Jackson fans to purchase the CC Share-Alike release of his digital masters (or the Beatles’ library).

Liberate IP seem to be applying this to commercial works, which I don’t quite understand.