[Bell Historians] proto-National Bell Register work

[Giles Blundell]

From: Shaun Brown 

To be honest, I really don't think copyright should be an issue! If people
are really sad enough to copyright the various mesurements and tunings of
bells, then something is rather wrong. It would appear that the copyright
exists for nothing more than glory. 

- I suspect that in practice, a national bell register (NBR) would not have to worry too much about copyright, so I don't think we have to worry about the precise minutiae of the law. 

Why do I think this? Because there are basically 2 things that will make a copyright holder defensive of their position:

- money. If someone is trying to exploit a valuable asset for free, then it's natural for the asset's owner to be offended - and knowledge is an asset. 

In the case of an NBR, I think we are agreed there will be very little money around. So no one is likely (though it is of course possible) to demand a slice of 'very little'.

- pride. There is work (often a great deal of work) involved in creating an intellectual asset. It is not nice to feel that someone, in some way, may be trying to pass your work off as their own. 

I can imagine this being a problem for an NBR. This area will always be difficult, but I would suggest that reasonable efforts to fully acknowledge the work of others, to get permission to use their work and to avoid developing a reputation as an abuser of intellectual property should be enough to avoid the risks of having to explore and understand the full rigour of copyright law. 

Hope this helps. 

Cheers

Giles Blundell
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