Butterflies of Kazakshtan, request of some pages

As a published author, it saddens me when people ask someone else to make free and illegal copies.

My book has 1,200 photographs, most all cut, cropped, and color corrected. That’s out of 10,000 photos I took for the book.

Then there are the 400 hours of design, layout, and production. And of course expensive printing costs.


So why would someone think it’s ok to steal all my hard work and investment?

Chuck

From the US standpoint the material descriptions and technical photographs are *not copyrightable*. Read this article below for a longer viewpoint, but in essence "According to U.S. Copyright Law, a work may not qualify for copyright protection if it is about an “idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work.” 17 U.S. Code § 102 (b) www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/102. The paragraph describes a concept that is basic for all copyright laws in the world [81, section 2.8]."

So while people *should* buy and support your work, the illustrations and descriptions you have provided are not bound by copyright law. The work as a whole is though, so copies of the entire work would be illegal. Someone asking for specific plates or text of descriptions is perfectly legal in the US.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/087015v1.full

(I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice)

Continue to propagate such spirit and the results will be : no more books, revues or works. And good luck to identify your insects.

Collection is a hobby for rich people and I am always surprised to see the ammount of money spent by many collectors for collectings and/or buying insect and the few money (if any) that they spend for buying books or revues. It is like the authors must be their slaves (working for peanuts). Publish a book cost a lot of money, time and energy. The collectors must try by themselves to do such work, may be they will understand that paying for a book or a revue cost very few money comparing the sum they pay for their collection or they must pay to obatin such results.

For those that really don't have money, it exist libraries or possibility to ask directly to author (and keeping discrete) (as being author and editor myself, I do it). For those who pretend to work for science or for the well-being of all , let me laugh and having all the works for free, it's a big hypocrise that only serves their ego and their wallet.
There is a balance between paying or not, and those that have money (and nearly all collectors have) must be fair and admit they can pay. Being fair or not, that is the question.

ps : note that some revues or works are sponsored (by public institution, public money, university, etc....) that of course do not enter into this categories.

Exactly Jan. That is the normal reaction to the post. Not to take every post like a personal attack.

As for the discussion. I was asking for help, not for a discussion.

First of all. What i am asking is to see 1-2 pages of a book, mostly to confirm information (the book is a little bit old). What will be the difference between somebody sending me a copy or going to a library and seeing it for myself. None. I am not going to sell the page.

Second, talking about the book of Tshikolovets (to prevent somebody else to think I am talking about he/she). The book is a survey that include some records made for the authors but, mostly, records by previous authors. Are you going to tell me that he (any author) own personally every single book, every journal manuscript (I mean pay out for the article), he cited or read to compile the data which conform the book. That is ridiculous. On the other hand, if the information I am looking for happens to be a contribution for a previous author, it could be unfair to pay Tshikolovets for this information (his book, I do not need it for anything else). He will be making a profit selling me that data, and preventing me for buying the information [book] from the original author(s). What a crook. [this is obviously a "reductio ad absurdum"]

If you have a book, you can share it, and that had happen since books exist. It is its purpose. Science is a common endeavor.

1- As I said in my previous post, ask the author directly. Interest in his work is precious to him. If someone asks your permission to see your beautiful garden you will probably accept and be will be honored, if the guy enters your property without permission, you will not be happy! Be human and recognise the work of your colleagues.
2- Tshikolovets does not sell data but a work. Even the data needs money to be collected. If you want data in a museum (a public institution which is normally free), you pay for the trip, the hotel, the photos, the fees, etc ... and many museums today ask for copyright on the photos they took or on their type material. Who will help the author to pay that ? Stop saying the butterfly study is free. Strange, you are not asking for the right to collect for free and I am sure you spent a lot of money in collecting.

Even "free" litterature is paid by someone (sponsor, institution, public money, authors themselves, salary of professional entomologists, printing, editing, etc.)

"Science is a joint enterprise." what hypocrisy to justify a free service (and are you sure to make science) ? Everything has to be paid for by scientists, even copyright. In the most widespread economic system today, everything has to be paid ... If you use information provided by someone and which results from a work, be fair and play the game of reciprocity (money or at least service if you are unable to pay).

We in the Association of Lepidopterists of France are both authors and publishers of books. Publishing costs a lot of money and we have to, if not make a profit, at least compensate for our expenses. This is why, we are vigilant about the distribution of pdf: a little but not too much! The case presents itself at the moment with our publication, in three parts, of a large summary article on neotropical Pronophilini. We do not distribute a pdf because we have decided to combine these three parts into a single book which will be trilingual (French, English and Spanish). And, of course, if we edit it, we will have to sell it! So few pdf's that would restrict future sales.

It is secondary but it also deserves to be pointed out. We published a large book on Morpho sold for around 100 euros. The book weighs more than 2 kg. Even if we offer it to a friend in South America, the postage amounts to 55 euros! Which is huge! That said, this book is profitable. Given the number of copies sold, the investment is largely recovered. Needless to say, the profits go to the Association (to finance new publications) and not to the authors. It is not by writing on the butterflies that I can afford a vacation in Seychelles or the Bahamas!

www.lepidofrance.com/monographies/morpho-distribution-diversification-comportement/

collector-secret.proboards.com/thread/3210/pronophilini-3

collector-secret.proboards.com/thread/3212/traveling-andes

I'd say the same as Adam, publishers take any (?) profits to cover their costs, authors just get a few free copies.  I also publish in Zootaxa but can't afford the fees to make them open access so they're only accessible to subscribers to Zootaxa.