Stan Sandler, Jerry Bromenshenk, and Leo Walford replied to my offer to
send copies of some of my papers to anyone who would like them (and who
would really read them).  The latter two rightly brought up the issue of
copyright.
 
   Some journals and magazines essentially leave the copyright with the
author(s).  BEE CULTURE, for example, does not furnish authors with the
customary set of reprints for distribution but allows authors to make their
own copies for distribution.
 
   While it may technically be illegal for authors to copy their own
articles or papers and distribute them to interested people, I have never
heard of a scientific journal prosecuting the author of a scholarly paper
for violating the letter of the law with regard to distribution of their
own work.  There remains a great distinction between distribution, gratis,
and what might occur if one should sell copies of a copywrited article or
paper.
 
   While Stan's suggestion that ASCII files could readily be adapted to
distribution over the Internet, we usually prepare any illustrations with
other software.  While we could probably scan those illustrations and
convert the information to ASCII files, not all receiving computers have
the capability to translate incoming messages other than text.  That is, as
I understand matters.  For example, sometimes I can download a figure or
table, but at other times I cannot.
 
   And, as Jerry Bromenshenk wrote:  >I suspect that [Internet
distribution] >steps over the line [with respect to copyright laws].  For
those of us who deal >with large classes, most copyrights permit an
occassional single copy of an
>article or more copies of a part of an article, but not multiple copies of
>an article  or  a significant portion of a monograph.
 
   Back to the original offer:  I will gladly make copies of my own work at
my own expense and mail them to those who really would like to study the
issue on the basis of primary literature rather than depend on the
sometimes unreliable opinion of others who --- themselves --- may not have
read those contributions.
 
                                                Adrian
 
Adrian M. Wenner                         (805) 893-2838 (UCSB office)
Ecol., Evol., & Marine Biology           (805) 893-8062  (UCSB FAX)
Univ. of Calif., Santa Barbara           (805) 963-8508 (home office & FAX)
Santa Barbara, CA  93106
 
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*  "The difference between real and unreal things is that unreal things *
*   usually last much longer."                          Pot-Shots #6728 *
*          Copyright, Ashleigh Brilliant --- used with permission       *
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