Re: [CR]An Open Letter To Jon Fischer / VeloBase And The CR List

(Example: Component Manufacturers:Avocet)

Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2008 16:53:29 -0500
From: "Sadiq Gill" <sadiqgill@gmail.com>
To: "R.S. Broderick" <rsb000@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: [CR]An Open Letter To Jon Fischer / VeloBase And The CR List
In-Reply-To: <BAY109-W41B2C5C726BBB39BF354EC9C210@phx.gbl>
References: <BLU135-W439A750EF37CEAC0B35C2E85210@phx.gbl>
cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org

Mr. Broderick........

On Feb 18, 2008 4:22 PM, R.S. Broderick <rsb000@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> Jon,
>
> I am contacting you in response to your recent post to the CR List
> regardin
> g VeloBase.com. As a direct result of said posting, I took the
> opportunity
> to visit your website for the very first time, and in the course of so
> doi
> ng, availed myself of the opportunity to glance at those digital images of
> catalogs and other literature which you have available for public viewing.
> It was at that point in time I was confronted with the ugly fact that
> seve
> ral of said catalogs, brochures, and posters were exact copies of ones
> whic
> h I have either personally digitized from my own collection and posted to
> W
> oolJersey or which appeared within copyrighted auction listings for
> materia
> l which I have sold on eBay. Sadly, I also happen to recognize more than
> a
> few other digital representations of literature which were procured
> specif
> ically from various other websites including EquusBicycle.com and several
> W
> oolJersey albums that are maintained by other CR List members. And while
> I
> cannot, nor would I presume to, speak for those other individuals whose
> ef
> forts and images are being re-used on your VeloBase.com website, I can
> assu
> re you that never once to my knowledge was my own permission sought, and
> in
> any case it was absolutely NEVER given, that those images and copyrighted
> materials I generated be re-used by VeloBase.com. Therefore, I hereby
> quit
> e publicly ask that you immediately cease and desist all display,
> dissemina
> tion, and re-publication of said materials and purge same from your
> website
> and its archives or otherwise face legal action instigated on my behalf
> to
> accomplish same in defense of my copyrights and those of others whose
> legi
> timate permissions for exclusive internet republication I obtained.
>
> I do not know the particulars of that process whereby individuals might
> sub
> mit to VeloBase.com materials for use on said site, although I would like
> t
> o think that Jon Fischer and/or one of his designates would make at least
> a
> reasonable effort to vet said submissions so as to determine that they
> mig
> ht be used with permission of either the legitimate copyright holders
> and/o
> r those who took the time and effort to originally digitize such
> literature
> . I can state that in my own circumstance, I have taken the time to do
> exa
> ctly that and that I have on file the express, written letters of consent
> f
> rom the appropriate authorities. In fact, it is often the very time
> consum
> ing and thankless process of securing proper legal permission for internet
> republication that has slowed the already tedious process of digitizing
> the
> literally thousands of vintage cycling catalogs, brochures, posters,
> adver
> tising materials, technical publications, service manuals, and the like I
> h
> ad thought to eventually have posted out to WoolJersey so that other
> partie
> s might make legitimate personal use of same in due course of pursuing
> thei
> r individual passions and projects.
>
> I will be quite honest in telling all of you out there on the CR List who
> m
> ight read this rather somber missive and whom I generally believe to be
> ups
> tanding individuals who have much to contribute in your own right toward
> he
> lping fellow cycling enthusiasts, if those who would purport to support
> our
> vintage cycling community either cannot or will not perform proper due
> dil
> igence with respect to submissions they might receive from others or which
> they obtain on their own so as to subsequently promote either explicitly
> or
> through complicity of inaction the illegitimate replication without
> accred
> itation and/or wanton plagiarization of materials generated by other
> partie
> s, profiteering in the process through increased website traffic by having
> effectively represented these as being their own, there is little or NO
> inc
> entive for persons such as myself who attempt to offer what assistance
> they
> might gratis to the masses by virtue of open internet access.
>
> As a direct consequence of this unfortunate situation, it is with great
> sad
> ness and more than a few reservations that I have seen fit to immediately
> p
> lace all of that material which I had previously posted to WoolJersey for
> t
> he benefit of our greater vintage cycling community into a password
> protect
> ed mode - effectively rendering it private domain once again. Moreover, I
> am suspending all efforts on my part to further that online resource by no
> longer working toward digitizing all of that bountiful resource of other
> ma
> terial which I have on hand - possibly even going so far as to consider
> sca
> ttering it all to the four corners of the world by dumping it en masse on
> e
> Bay. Only at such time as illegal copies of digital materials have been
> re
> moved from VeloBase.com and a public apology for their (...hopefully
> uninte
> nded) replication is offered in this very forum as well as the main web
> pag
> e of VeloBase.com itself, will I once again allow unfettered access to
> that
> library of materials which has been posted to WoolJersey, resume my
> effort
> s toward growing the contents of same, and as before, ask that fellow
> enthu
> siasts and CR List members be mindful of employing their likeliness ONLY
> fo
> r personal use.
>
> Robert Broderick
> Sioux Falls, SD - United States
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -> From: cuda2k@hotmail.com> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org> Date:
> Mon,
> 18 Feb 2008 11:13:51 -0600> Subject: [CR]VeloBase.com February Update> >
> >
> VeloBase.com February Semi-Monthly Update! (Classic Rendezvous Preview,
> th
> e> email to velobase users won't be going out till Tuesday most
> likely)Firs
> t > major update announcement of the new year. If you have been keeping
> tra
> ck o> f the announcements on the website some of this will likely look
> fami
> liar. > First for a couple of stats. Velobase.com <http://velobase.com/>now has over 350 users, a
> nd over > 1550 bicycle components in the database. Beyond that there are
> no
> w almost 1> 50 head badges, 90 vintage tools, 40+ frame parts, and 67
> catal
> og scans. Th> e site has been receiving somewhere between 1400 and 2000
> pag
> e views from s> omewhere around 200+ individuals per day. This is in no
> sma
> ll part thanks t> o the contributions of many of those 350 members. Some
> of
> the most recent a> dditions to the Component Database include Weinmann
> 610
> single pivot brakes> , Ideale 41 Sports saddle, Stronglight Model 57
> Piste
> crank set and a First> Gen. Shimano Dura-Ace (Black version) shifters
> (and
> other parts). Some of > the newest head badges include J.R.J. (early name
> for Bob Jackson built fra> mes), a Bridgestone Grand-Velo head badge and a
> JOCO brand (Dutch) badge. N> ew frame part additions include a bottom
> brack
> et and fork crown from Georg > Fischer and other parts from Campagnolo,
> Col
> umbus and Reynolds.In addition > to many new items in the databases, there
> have been a lot of new features, > pages, and elements to the website that
> I have been busy working on over th> e last couple of months. Some improve
> navigation around the website, others> improve or increase the search
> funct
> ions, while others are an addition to > the add / edit screens. Below is a
> list of the more major additions to the > website since the last major
> upda
> te. There are many other more minor change> s that can be reviewed in the
> N
> ews & Announcements section of the site.1) T> he second page of the
> Standar
> d Search is finally completed! Yes, the site h> as been up for over six
> mon
> ths and the second half of one of the primary fo> rms of search was never
> c
> ompleted. I knew that this hadn't been finished, b> ut just never really
> go
> t around to finishing it, instead working on other p> rojects around the
> we
> bsite. One reason was I thought that very few people w> ere using the
> stand
> ard search. However I was informed by a number of users > this was not the
> case when I tried to remove it from the left side navigati> on. This
> prompt
> ed me to not only putting it back in the search list, but fi> nishing the
> s
> econd page's operation. Another case of user's input helping s> hape the
> de
> velopment of the website.2) The new Year Range fields have been > added to
> the Component Database. These fields have allowed me to add a Year> s
> Produ
> ced to the Quick Search screen. These Year Range fields have input f>
> ilter
> s that prevent any character other than a number put into the exact ye> ar
> section. A little touch to make things easier for users. Right now the Y>
> e
> ar Range Search will only work if you select one decade, but I will
> hopefu>
> lly have this error fixed later this week. I also went through every one
> o
> f> the existing components and updated it to convert the old year
> informati
> on> to the new format. There are still lots of components that never had a
> yea> r range value, which is one area that I could really use some help in
> over > the next couple of months.3) Auto Complete drop downs for the Name,
> Group a> nd new Model search text fields on the Quick Search page. Start
> ty
> ping in t> he brand name, group name, or model name that you are searching
> for and a l> ist of valid values in the system appear that you can choose
> f
> rom (or just > continue typing in exactly the search phrase you want).
> Addi
> tionally I have> made it where you can search for multiple groups or model
> numbers by separ> ating the values by ';'.4) Most Wanted Updates List.
> Just
> like the name sug> gests, there are a lot of updates and missing data in
> t
> he Velobase.com http://velobase.com/ data> base and here is a place to
> see what needs what infor
> mation added. If you w> ant to help improve the information on
> VeloBase.com
> , this is a very good pl> ace to start. You can filter what information,
> wh
> at categories, etc etc you> want to see the list for. By default it shows
> t
> he top 25 components that a> re missing Date Range or Flagged for
> Incorrect
> Information. See the list he> re:
> http://velobase.com/ComponentMostWanted.
> aspx5) Component Search options> have been collected and put in a Menu on
> t
> he left hand side navigation mas> t. Instead of each type of search
> listed,
> they are all under "Component Sea> rch" which shows each option when you
> h
> over over. This puts more of the fea> tures of VeloBase.com on the screen
> i
> n that left hand navigation area. I fe> lt that many of the features of
> the
> site were not getting noticed by visito> rs because the links to them
> were
> not visible on the screen unless you real> ly scrolled down quite a ways.
> This fixes that problem, to an extent. Likew> ise, I have gathered all of
> t
> he options that were across the top of the Vie> w Single Component page
> (Ed
> it, Photo Manager, Add Variation, etc) and put i> t under a drop down menu
> to reduce the clutter at the top of that page.6) R> SS Feeds. There are
> cur
> rently 4 RSS Feeds for Velobase.com <http://velobase.com/>. Recent
> Componen> ts, Recent Head Badge
> s & Frame Parts, If you're a techie and knows what RSS> is, you'll know
> wha
> t this is about. Else, check out the link on this page > for the wiki info
> on this technology. http://velobase.com/FeedList.aspxTher> e are a few
> thin
> gs that I have planned or bugs that need to be fixed. I am > currently
> goin
> g through some minor surgery to remove some moles as a preven> tive
> measure
> to prevent a recurrence of skin cancer which is cutting into n> ot only
> my
> cycling time, but also the time I have to work on the website. I> 've
> noti
> ced some issues with adding / editing year information for Componen> ts,
> an
> d that the Quick Search year check boxes will cause an error if you s>
> elec
> t more than one of them. Both of these issues should hopefully be fixed>
> in
> the near future. As always I am open to user suggestions, feedback and >
> i
> deas. If you have any questions or problems with the site, feel free to
> co>
> ntact me through the velobase email address or my CR List email.> Jon
> Fisc
> her> Dallas, TXVeloBase.com > > > > >
> -------------------------------------
> --------------------------------------> -------------------> The Greatest
> T
> rophy of all is the sense of Accomplishment http://velobase.c> om |
> http://
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--
Sadiq Gill
Richmond, VA