Printing e-journals

[Phil_SK]

Writing my post in the society section about leaflets has set me thinking about printing e-journals. I've been present at meetings when the option has been discussed and a search of our old forum posts brings up many mentions of files being of a quality suitable for printing. Whilst I don't want a complete run of paper copies of The Cactus Explorer, Acta Succulenta, The Cactician, Schütziana, Succulentopi@ and Xerophilia, there are numerous articles that I either consult regularly or would like to read again and which would be more convenient if I were to compile them into a single or a few pdf files and then print. I suppose I'm thinking principally of these modern journals with lots of colour photos in that I couldn't print on my home printer very well but, separately, there's probably a lot of plain text stuff or with basic b&w photos that I could compile and print for personal use.

Has anybody actually done this or is it just something we talk about? Could you make any recommendations?

[DaveW]

If home printers can print photo's I don't see why they can't produce good images Phil. Most people in the photographic societies use printers the same as we have. The problem is we just use normal paper for printing rather than the more expensive proper glossy inkjet photo printing paper. You really need to print the photo's on glossy paper and the text on normal paper for cost reasons. The problem can be the file may need splitting up into to pages that need ordinary paper versus those that need glossy for photo's, which could be a bit of a chore unless you print everything on glossy.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/182266/d ... nters.html

http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/ro ... pers-15294

[Phil_SK]

If home printers can print photo's

Let me stop you there: I have a secondhand 10+ y.o. mono laser printer that has had the same toner cartidge for at least 8 years - I don't want a new printer as it gets little use. I wasn't really wanting a load of loose-leaf bits, either, I was thinking more of getting someone else to do it as a mini-book/booklet.

[Tony R]

Just check the resolution of the images in the pdf files are in fact sufficient for printing, so that you won't be disappointed. Whilst they may look good enough on the screen, printing at ideally 300dpi is another matter.

[DaveW]

Unless you are copying it yourself Phil another person copying it for you may be infringing copyright. Whilst you can do it yourself, making copies for other people may be illegal unless you have the copyright holders permission. How legal commercial photocopying services are when they copy journals etc for customers I do not know. I would guess a lot of copyright material gets illegally copied without the copyright owner knowing. Obviously if somebody else copies it for you they are not making copies for their personal use.

A quote from the link below:-

"Copying for personal use

However, it is unlawful to make copies for friends or family, or to make a copy of something you don't own or have acquired illegally, without the copyright owner’s permission. So you're not able to copy CDs borrowed from friends, or to copy videos illegally downloaded from file-sharing websites.

You're permitted to make personal copies to any device that you own, or a personal online storage medium, such as a private cloud. However, it is unlawful to give other people access to the copies you have made, including, for example, by allowing a friend to access your personal cloud storage."

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consu ... -material/

[habanerocat]

I'm sure one of your local printing companies would have the capability to print professional documents for local companies and the like. Might be pricy though.

Also most universities have their own printing and binding room. If you knew a student with access you might get a good deal there.

[Phil_SK]

Thanks for the warning, Dave, but having now read s29 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 I think I'm OK.

I'm sure one of your local printing companies would have the capability to print professional documents for local companies and the like. Might be pricy though.

Yes, that was what I was wondering whether anybody had any experience of in this context. I've heard it talked about but never in concrete terms.

[FaeLLe]

Do not reproduce documents without express consent from the copyright holder.

Upon conviction in the magistrates' court the maximum term of incarceration in the UK for copyright infringement is 6 months and/or a fine of up to £50,000. Upon conviction in the Crown Court the maximum term of incarceration in the UK for copyright infringement is 10 years and/or an "unlimited" fine.

What will you do if one of these publishers / e-journal authories or distributors come after you with a lawsuit?

Personal reproduction is a very touchy subject; if you even let another person look at the reprints the copyright holder can make a case for prosecution.

[ragamala]

I am amazed there is this nonsense and tippy-toe don't do this or that with regard to personal use of material which is published freely in the public domain. Frankly, talking of jailing for extracting part of a document available free on the internet is laughable.

If the same attitude were taken towards international conventions on legal plant exports I am guessing we would see a different reaction. Indeed I have seen it.

Let's have no hypocrisy here, at least.

[DaveW]

I have seen it work Ragamala. When I was on a photo site I was told there is some software that can trace whose downloading your images on the web. Anyway this amateur photographer found a firm had downloaded a photo of his (using Tin Eye to trace them I think) and sent them a bill saying he would take action if not paid and they paid him what he asked.

In most cases as you say authors will not bother chasing amateurs, only businesses that use their material and you can download a certain amount for review purposes anyway, but not pass parts of it off as your own in say an essay as some university students have been found to do. Also if it is being stolen abroad you would have to take action in foreign courts, which if you lost would cost more than the image is worth.

See:-

https://www.techhive.com/article/181361 ... focus.html

I was once asked by a photocopying service if I had the permission of the copyright owner to copy an article for my own use, but they copied it anyway and I have only had that happen once.

From what I gather stock image sites have now destroyed the value of most photo's since they sell amateurs photos dirt cheap and that has knocked the bottom out of the former professional market, which unless it is a pretty special image they can now only get a fraction of what they used to charge per image and no doubt that is the sort of value a court would now put on it, therefore it's hardly worth suing an amateur using them anyway.

As they say, if you don't want your material stealing don't put it online, since there may be somebody in the world somewhere downloading it and using it. There is even software online to remove copyright stamps on photo's and also alter the metadata, therefore no foolproof method of protecting them.