[168] in Information Retrieval
[Maggie Exon : Back to the Middle
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Susan B. Jones)
Mon May 10 10:58:56 1993
Date: Mon, 10 May 93 10:58:26 EST
From: sbjones@MIT.EDU (Susan B. Jones)
To: elibdev@MIT.EDU
The following "essay" was sent to the Medieval History list, but I thought after
the last ELIBDEV meeting, some of you might find Ms. Exon's comments on
copyright, plagiarism, and other issues of authenticity interesting.
Susan Jones
------- Forwarded Message
Date: Mon, 10 May 1993 15:26:29 WST+8
Reply-To: Medieval History <MEDIEV-L%UKANVM.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
Sender: Medieval History <MEDIEV-L%UKANVM.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
From: Maggie Exon <MAGGIE@BIBLIO.CURTIN.EDU.AU>
Subject: Back to the Middle Ages?
To: Multiple recipients of list MEDIEV-L <MEDIEV-L%UKANVM.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
I have been on this list for a while but this is the first time I have tried to
start a discussion. I hope what I have to say is not too obvious or is
something that has been done to death in the past.
There is currently a discussion going on the medieval list about electronic
texts on networks and the copyright problems this may entail. This mirrors
concerns on other networks, such as the debate on a cataloguers network about
whether the entries in a library catalogue which is made available to remote
users, including other libraries are copyright to the originating library.
It seems to me that we may have to begin to view the print era of the
mid-fifteenth to the late twentieth-century as an aberration in the history of
communication. We are now returning to medieval conditions (with some
important differences).
The similarities between the electronic era and the manuscript era include:
relatively unfixed texts; massaging of texts to suit the needs of users; free
trading in texts; lack of the notions of plagiarism and copyright; diffuse and
wrongly ascribed authorship or lack of author information; lack of a clear
boundary between private and public information; and, an absence of a clear
definition of publication. Even that mark of the manuscript era, lack of fixed
spelling, seems characteristic of many email messages I have seen!
By contrast the print era divided texts between those suitable for producing in
an edition of many copies and those which were not. We therefore had a
distinction between published works and private records (letters, diaries,
business records, etc.). The former encouraged the fixing of texts and
spelling, the idea of authorship and intellectual property thus leading to
notions of plagiarism and copyright. It also led to the notion of the worth of
texts being judged by whether they achieved publication or not.
The similarities between a manuscript and an electronic culture seem clear.
However, there are important differences. The anarchy implied by the
conditions described above is mitigated in the medieval period by a shared
culture which accepted certain texts as authoritative (notably the Bible) and
by the sheer effort necessary in creating written records which ensured that
longer texts were not reproduced unless at least the scribe thought it
worthwhile. Neither of these conditions appear to apply today. A much greater
problem is that we have built an academic culture in which the reward system is
based on individual claims to original ideas which are judged worthy of
publication. We also live in a society which is used to ascribing economic
value to everything. Under these circumstances the abandonment of notions such
as copyright is very threatening. But we are trying to retain these notions
within communication technologies which do not inherently support them.
When I have discussed these ideas with those who are not medievalists, they are
horrified at the idea that communication is 'returning to the middle ages',
because for them the middle ages represents a dark age of ignorance. Perhaps
medievalists may feel differently. Should we care? Can intellectual property
as an idea survive? I would be very interested indeed to have some replies.
Best wishes from Western Australia
Maggie Exon
School of Information and Library Studies
Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia
maggie@biblio.curtin.edu.au
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