[Marc-André Haldimann]

Ed, Jan, Peter and to all interested,

What shall one say? Of course, all this material without any source is plain and obvious breaching of all copyright laws. Even when sourced like you do, Peter, every pic we so gladly like to share with fellow enthusiasts or experts does contribute to those breaches. Let's now consider the options:

1) You rule out any kind of reposted document. Net result: the forum dies out rather quickly, as the proof element, picture, profile or originals scanned, simply disappears, making discussions pointless.

2) You abide by the rule of citing your source, and thus, ethically, you stand true not only to your line, but tot the general and fundamental line which guides all historians delving with the past, or even on a broader base, all the scientific community. A source which is clearly stated is a source which can be used, be it for criticizing or for endorsing the statements and documents it conveys, and most important for us, the way it is interpreted. Your line of action is ethically totally correct and the the steadfastness of you ALWAYS asking for the source can only be lauded. Source citation means a possibility for the source to complain if it feels plundered. On the reverse, on the user side of your website, it gives to all of us the chance to look at the source and thus discover it; in my case quite often, and given enough funds, it ends up by buying the book. This is not the worse issue business wise, isnt'it?

As for the website I found, the mass of photographic documentation is overwhelming and it looks just fine at a first glance. It is only on a closer examination that one notices there are strictly no captions for ANY of the pictures online, not even speaking of the original sources. What is the net result? A blank site which can't possibly be useful as there is no research on the documents it presents. Does this really harm the serious researcher? I'm not sure of that, as the stolen picture is given as is. It cannot thus be possibly used beyond the intent of the original researcher except by persons having bought the original book...

Capitalizing on those bases of ethics, those fraudulous sites - or the fact of posting a copyrighted picture with source given - might not be as harmfuly as it seems to be. What would research be without all those thousands of yet to study pictures which are out there on Ebay or Tonelli auctions, etc, and are getting publicized be it here or on TOCH....? If we accept the idea all source ocuments are basically for everyone to see, the follow up of this statement would be the creation of a huge pool of all those pictures which would be THE formidable reference base from which all authors might start or develpp their research, publishing them together with the fruit of their own research. in prints which would be apis for by all the readers. Would this be a path for an "ideal" future? I know I might be an utopist, but open source for the research is essential by meaning exactly what it says: without accessible sources, whatever they are, no research...

Sincerely

Marc