[SMF144]

Hi Mike,

That's interesting and it's what I figured; mind you, the copyright laws are always changing, so who knows what's what. Here's what get's me. First off, life is short. We all agree on that; I hope? Now, in the case of Laurent, he's probably been working on a labour of love for a long time and the only thing he's going to benefit is seeing his baby in print. I know because I've been there. Hell, if I had saved all of the money I've spent on copying veterans photos and log books, I would have moved out of my parents house a lot sooner than I did and would have had a many women and good times spent in bars under my belt but's that passion for you and I don't regret that I was able to interact with living history. Now, unless you are pumping out 5-8 plus books a year, there's no way in hell that you are even going to make a living as being an author unless you strike the cord first time around. In the case of Sudek 13, he or she or what has a lot of money and I don't begrudge that fact but if you wanna be the bully on the block and buy up everything and play the big yes I am or a vacuum cleaner for that matter, then we fine, there's nothing we can do about that but in the end we all loose. From the sounds of it, "we", yes white man, "we" are the ones loosing out on what could be an excellent publication or a missing link for that matter and I do feel for Laurent. In the case of Sudek 13, he, she, or what has a photo that I am really interested in, but I am not going to jump through the bloody flaming hoops just to get the nod or even make contact. I don't have time for that crap because I've got better things to do with my time. But you know what? A photo might be worth a thousand words, but only if you know what's going on in the photo and I can tell you right now, unless I am too cocky myself, Sudek 13 doesn't know what value of the photos I am interested in and the only way he's going to find out is if purchases my book.

Stephen