[Taxacom] what pop start can do... could taxonomists as well... Copyright

[Jurriaan de Vos]

There is another connection between the music world and the taxonomic world 
- that is the endless discussions on how to define and group the entities of 
study. In fact, classifying any given band into an existing genre - or 
erecting a new genre if it is really new music - is a truely taxonomical 
endeavour...

Jurriaan


On Mon, 6 Oct 2008 15:01:46 +1200
  "Jim Croft" <jim.croft at gmail.com> wrote:
> yeah - I am really looking forward to all those crazy parties, free
> booze,  groupies, flash cars and a phylogenetic tree on the cover of
> Rolling Stone... :)
> 
> While it might be interesting to equate record companies and journal
> publishers, the analogy probably can not be pushed too far. While both
> creative acts, science/taxonomy is public good and infrastructure,
> music is entertainment; one is generally supported by the taxpayer,
> the other generally isn't.  In the music industry musicians are trying
> to move the profit centre from the distributors to the artists, but
> still restrict distribution.  In taxonomy we want to make sure the
> information is available and attributed, without access restriction
> for anyone who needs it.  We want is the the equivalent of the right
> to sing 'Happy Birthday' without infringing copyright or paying Time
> Warner $10k for permission to use what is right for the occasion.
> 
> jim
> 

******************************
Jurriaan de Vos -- PhD student
Institute for Systematic Botany
University of Zürich
Zollikerstrasse 107
8008 Zürich -- Switzerland
tel. +41 (0)44 6348354
Jurriaan.deVos at systbot.uzh.ch