Creating Digital Albums

TENNAPEL --- agree with your posting "the focus shifts away from stamps " I can see some collectors spending more time on design and layout work .

First, this has always been a risk for artists and content creators of all kinds, for hundreds of years. Second, what negative impact? A photographer will decide to never take a picture because it might be used without attribution? An author won't write because someone might plagiarize? Come on.

First, no one argued that copyright issue are recent issues, so I do not understand your point on that.

Second, I know of a number of people who considered making a website but changed their minds feeling strongly that it will be taken without permission. And frankly I do not blame them, Stamp Smarter had its entire content taken and used on another site with a very similar domain name. Give it a try, spend a few thousand man-hours of your time only to have it taken and see how you feel. Or open a regional club periodical and find your images/content used without even a mention or attribution.

The same hesitancy exists for doing presentations or other forms of publishing philatelic knowledge and giving back to the hobby. I have at least 3 private emails, where the senders told me that they are not willing to share what they know (by either publishing hardcopy OR digital).

Copyright concerns are virtually ubiquitous in philately, whether it is catalog publishers not going digital, people pushing back on AI because their content might be gleaned by AI engines, people plastering watermarks across their images, or the old school influencers in our hobby who push back on doing anything digital.
Don

Don, were you able to get the issue resolved with the other website that stole your content?

No. I do not have the deep pockets to chase this kind of civil action. But probably more important, my intention has always been to give back to this hobby which has given so much to me.

I have always responded to any request to use Stamp Smarter content quickly and without any restrictions. But I guess that "It's Easier to Ask Forgiveness Than It Is To Get Permission".
Don

[51studebakerquote]



Why on earth are they thinking that way ? It seems totally selfish to me. If everyone thought that way where would philately be. Are they implying that they never made use of any knowledge that they gained from a book.

Were they were hoping to get some monetary value from that information? To do that they have to publish in a book that can be sold. That has always run the risk of someone copying the info.

Or are they the sort of person who thinks they are "better" if they have info that on one else has. I hope the three people you mentioned are not members of this forum and who are gaining knowledge from what is published here.

If they are not after money for knowledge just publish in a journal and reap all the kind thoughts and thanks from fellow collectors.

I have seen ebay lots of common covers with "do not copy" watermarks applied to them. Did they seller ever stop to think WHY anyone would even want to copy an image of a used cover in the first place.

AQ

I understand protecting a financial interest, or perhaps one's own artistic effort. But this is the INTERNET. If it's not going to really hurt you, just go for the good karma and be generous - just put it out there. Otherwise if it's going to make you uptight and angry and you're going to dwell on what the world will do with your creation, maybe you shouldn't make it public at all, because it won't make you happy.

I have been an admin on a busy gaming forum for over 20 years. I have personally produced hundreds of graphics and skins for game usage with absolutely no strings attached. I wanted to make them and I wanted to share them. I don't even care if anyone says thanks.

I'm not saying everyone has to have the same outlook that I have, but I do believe they'd be happier if they did. The other way makes you angry and smaller, and it's mostly a hopeless cause anyway.

Everyone gets to decide how much they may want to share with others. I have heard a lot of various justifications and I can understand some of them.

For example, some people do not want to share information because it leads to others also being able properly ID certain stamps and there rarity. I think that it is true that sharing knowledge can lead to increasing competition for some material.

I have also had people tell they do not share because they might one day want to monetize their knowledge.

One person told me, 'I spent a lot of money and effort gaining my knowledge, I am not going to give it away'.

In my opinion, some of these are legitimate reasons.
Don

Understand that POV completely. It is like any vocation in life. You spend money and time to learn a new skill or understand some discipline and are in turn rewarded for it by increased compensation or other rewards. Like a university degree, learning a new IT skill or becoming a certified pipe welder. Nothing is stopping you though from giving back a bit if that is in your nature.

Many people on this forum seem to be happy to share their knowledge so there is much hope.

I guess what would be really annoying is intellectual property theft such as China loves to engage in. To see all of your work pinched and someone else reap the rewards.

One person told me, 'I spent a lot of money and effort gaining my knowledge, I am not going to give it away'.

I just wonder how they think they will make money from that. Write a specialised book for philatelists ???. I cannot see that raking in huge amounts of cash especially with the time and effort that would take to produce a book. I can see why they may feel that way but I do not think that they have thougth it through.

I wonder what the average print run for a philatelic book is. A few hundered at the very most ??. It is just a shame when people die and take that knoweldge with them. I have the hard cover version of the Canadian Centennial Definitives by Robin Harris. One of only 100 printed. There were presumably more of the soft cover but not that many more.

AQ

Not necessary to gamble on a print run nowadays - as most self-published books are done print-on-demand. Amazon's KDP program, for example, requires no up-front costs (even for an ISBN).

1. Publisher (you) uploads the book.
2. Customer orders book from Amazon.
3. Amazon's printing contractor produces book.
4. Amazon sends book to customer.
5. Publisher (author) receives royalties.

This is simplified, of course. I only use Amazon KDP as an example, as I am familiar with it. There are other programs elsewhere, of course.

John

They were images I took at the APS show.in Richmond.

I just wanted to mention IrfanView, which is free software that has several purposes.

"IrfanView is an image viewer, editor, organizer and converter program for Windows. It can also play video and audio files, and has some image creation and painting capabilities."

It has a thumbnail viewer that allows for larger thumbnails than Windows Explorer does and is excellent (and very customizable) if you want to view digital images stored in folders. Here's a sample: