Shane Rear - copyright definition (names)

To Mr SHANE REAR:
With reference to your letter "Copyright infringement notice - removal request" to me of 10th October received at 23:11 (number 7 in my file)

Please explain how mentioning somebody's name in a discussion of a series in events constitutes in your opinion a breach of COPYRIGHT? You seem to be condused what the word 'copyright' actually means. Please explain here your reasoning with reference to the relevant legislation.

Until you do so, I must regretfully inform you I see no reason to disrupt the narrative structure of my text to comply with your demands to alter it.

Thank you
Paul Barford

Oy M8, that's copyrite!

The immediate reason for setting this second blog up was that a number of metal detector using artefact hunters and collectors apparently associated with the "detectorist.co.uk" forum have been harassing me over the past few days with a barrage of email communications concerning what they allege are 'copyright violations' committed by me in my referring to material on their forum and other resources disseminated by the Internet.

It seems to me that these metal detectorists would like to shield their exploitive and erosive hobby from criticism, and are casting about for a means to do it. They typically append footers to the emails in which they make their baseless allegations (copied one from another) denying the recipient the right to share their contents with third parties, and of course have so far denied permission to post their words here so that people can see what they are actually asserting. This is typical, British metal detectorists are typically all mouth and no trousers when it comes to actually backing up their claims with proper and articulate arguments. Members of this milieu are however also making such allegations publicly elsewhere: http://paulbarfordstinx.blogspot.com/

From the messages I have received so far, it appears to me that their senders have not the foggiest idea of what copyright law actually says, neither in their own country (the United Kingdom) nor that in the milieu where the blog arose (Poland) and is hosted (the United States). Their messages suggest to me that they actually have no knowledge of what can be copyrighted and what not and are too lazy to try to find out. They appear to have no knowledge of what constitutes fair use in criticism and review. They seem to think that the laws of copyright have in some way been formulated to prevent free speech and to protect THEIR hobby from any form of scrutiny or criticism, rather than its true purpose to protect the physical products of creativity.

So I invite these individuals to an open and civil discussion of their grievances here on this blog. Only one rule, no pseudonyms, real names only guys. What is the problem in signing your own name beneath your own words?

Purpose of this blog

This blog was originally created (as a supplement to my Portable Antiquity Collecting and Heritage Issues [PACHI] blog created just three months earlier) to discuss side issues arising from discussion of so-called "metal detecting" in Britain. Metal detectorists in the UK have very little of substance to say of the wider issues raised in public debate on artefact hunting and collecting. They therefore can apparently think of nothing better than to adopt a strategy of disruption - attempting to divert discussion away from the main topic into side issues. This tactic is intended to frustrate open debate and stifle free speech concerning the exploitation of archaeological sites for entertainment and profit and its effects on everybody's archaeological heritage.

This blog therefore has been set up to deal with the proliferation of such side issues. Some of thee people are deliberately setting out to be provocative and annoying, and I feel there should be some comeback. In others, some of the things they say to provoke may mislead the outside reader - coming across a statement on the internet without knowing its context- and so requires some kind of an answer somewhere. Answering these people however gives them the oxygen they require and to do so from my  Portable Antiquity Collecting and Heritage Issues (PACHI) blog would do precisely that. This blog is therefore intended as an overflow to my other blog. It is a sort of blog-ghetto for posts dealing with the less pleasant side of the so-called "heritage debate" with this sector of the public. I leave readers of both blogs to determine for themselves to what extent one can actually debate real and weighty issues with artefact collectors, dealers and their paid lobbyists.

I make no apologies for the somewhat sarcastic tone of some of the posts that may follow. After over a decade of this, harassment, puerile personal attacks and petulant insults instead of real arguments from the entire milieu and their supporters, I personally find it increasingly difficult to treat much of this with any seriousness, this is a blog, not an academic journal.

Due to its nature, it is not anticipated that the general reader will find much of interest here, this is an overflow necessitated by the behaviour of artefact hunters from my other blog "Portable Antiquities and Heritage Issues" to which interested readers are cordially invited.