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Subject: Technical dive sites

Richard Taylor wrote in a good post:

> [ ... Dialogue between Rick and myself deleted ... ]
>
> valid points...HOWEVER, if someone is going to go to the trouble of 
> ORGANISING the information given then if that person wants to publish a 
> book for profit then good on them. I suppose it's similar to publishing a 
> Compendium of say World Golf Courses or even the Guiness Book of Records.
> If however Rick would like for individual countries to be listed in say 
> seperate volumes then why not have the relevant details passed to those of 
> us on the Net in that country who may wish to comment.  For my trouble I'd 
> be willing to do it for the thanks and maybe  a copy of the book.

Absolutely, but I have some qualifying mutterings. I would like
to understand the motivation for the project and feel that people
were not simply being used to the benefit of the organiser - and
I don't mean financially. This is not an accusation against Rick.

The original posting made it sound like we should all send info
to Rick, he would publish it and it might turn out that the
only way to see what "we" contributed would be to buy the book.
Regardless of whether the net's contribution was 1% or 100%
I don't think this is right. IMHO the net supplied information
should be gathered and made available here first. And if it gets
published it should have the standard net copyright thing at
the front about freely copying material as long as the copy-
right notice is included.

Suppose there was no copyright header and all you Australians
got together and detailed 50 tech sites in your country and sent
them to Rick. Does that mean Rick, or his publisher, now owns
your material or are they simply reproducing it with your
permission? Would your group be able to publish that information
later on in Australia if you wished?

You may feel that having typed up all this material that it is
worth donating it to your local agency for publication in their
circulars. It is surely going to be more valuable to your fellow
countrymen than Americans or Europeans. Would this be legal?

I think that what really stirred people up was that it appeared
he had decided to write the book first and worry about the net
later. Had he suggested a database on the net and then after a
while said;
  "I've been maintaining this stuff for a while and I think
   it deserves a wider audience. Do you mind if I publish it
   in a book."
Then I would probably not have objected. (Copyright ... blah).

> I am sure we can all help out to some degree without needing monetary 
> recompense.  In return I would hope for the same assistance back.

Absolutely. I hope it didn't sound like I would only want
to participate if I got a share in any profits. I'd gladly
sit here and type about diving all day for free - in fact I
often do :-)

> At least SOMEONE is doing SOMETHING to get the tech diving details out 
> there to a broader range of people.  This can only strengthen the case for 
> MORE tech acceptance.

I think there is a fair bit out there already. Information such as
Rick was suggesting may or may not be helpful. It would depend on
how it was presented. A catalogue of technical dive sites  may be
very useful for technical divers but it could quite easily cause
problems for them and others. What happens if a local council in
one of the countries gets hold of the book and bans diving at all
the sites listed because the governing scuba body for that area
doesn't approve of technical diving?

In what way would a directory of technical dive sites strengthen
the case for more tech acceptance? It is not illustrating safer
ways of doing it. In fact it could be construed as tantalising
people to go to tech sites when they may not understand the higher
risk associated with diving them.

Just playing devil's advocate here feel free to poke holes in
any of the above.

Alan 

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