

Papers needed? And what about legal issues....

Gerald L. McLaughlin, Ph.D gmclaugh at iupui.edu
Tue Jun 23 09:09:40 EST 1998

At 11:19 AM 6/23/98 +0200, Shukri Adams wrote:
>Hi - I'm doing an MSc in parasite biogeography as a tool for fisheries
>management. I'm based in at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
>During the course of my research I have become increasingly frustrated
>to find out that important publications that I need are just not
>available in this country, and with the terrible Rand - US$ exchange
>rate and bad postal service, it's very difficult and costly getting
>publications through interlibrary loans/photocopies. I know it's legal
>to photocopy publications for one's own use (within reason of course),
>and it's also allowed to photocopy a publication for someone else and
>give it to them. So, what stops people from scanning up papers and
>emailing the scans to people in need of them? And is it legal to place
>the scans on a website? What happens if access to the website is
>restricted to only a certain number of people with valid reasons to view
>the scans? If anybody has any advice on the matter, please let me know.
>Also, if anybody out there is interested in partaking in this, get in
>touch. You will obviously need to have access to a computer scanner
>(preferably a flatbed), and internet connection.

I suspect this is not legal; copyright to publishers is fairly broadly
interpreted.  Classics, for which copyrights have expired, may provide an
exception, but otherwise I think publisher's permission is needed for any
copies beyond one for one's personal file, or  perhaps reserve at the
library for a course one teaches.  In developing countries, access to
Medline and similar internet search engines can identify desirable articles,
then ask for reprints.  Books are also available for order by internet, and
are often the best references for specialty topics like yours.  Nothing
replaces a personal list of like-minded experts who watch for information of
each other's interest, then forward copies or alerts to each other about
publications, or bounce ideas off each other.  
>If this idea is legal, I would be more than happy to make my collection
>of marine parasite papers available to others. I will also provide ample
>web and FTP space if it's legal to put material up at such sites. 
>One more question for anybody in the know - is there a parasitology list
>server group out there somewhere? This newsgroup isn't exactly bustling
>with visitors, and I'd like to get in touch with more parasitologists.

I think this is a "the" list server group for parasitology so far.  It's not
very active, but this may reflect the relatively few members of ASP and
ICOP, generally classical parasitologists, and the apparent lack of formal
organization of the also-rare molecular parasitologists, who herd to Woods
Hole annually.  ASTMH has a web page, but it's also not busy.  Pappas at OSU
has a list of parasitologists but this is not an active site.  Listserves
are what members make of them; no posts, no responses, no activities; if the
listserve is dull, the participants are dull.
>cheers !
>email me at:
>sadams at botzoo.uct.ac.za
Gerald L. McLaughlin, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Pathology and Lab Medicine
635 Barnhill Dr, MS A128
Indianapolis, IN  46202-5120
Ph 317-274-2651; FAX 317-278-0643/2018; Home 317-328-7811
E-Mail:  gmclaugh at iupui.edu

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