Over the weekend we received an e-mail about this thread which forced me to consider whether to kill it outright, try to moderate it somewhat, or just let it go. Usually when someone asks that a thread be killed, they've got a very good point, however in this case I'm not so sure. Some very pertinent issues have been brought to the surface.
First, GT's collection. As Jason mentions, collectors are "leasing" their material from the past and preserviing them for the future. I think that this is an excellent point. When people buy things they generally don't do so with the intention of simply destroying them (firecrackers excluded). But when someone aquires an artifact, there is (or should be) a sense that they are not just obtaining it for thier own personal enjoyment - the connection that artifact gives them to the past - but are taking on the responsibility of ensuring that the item survives. Failure to acknowledge this responsibility gives the impression that they are simply more interested in denying the material to others than in the historical significance it represents. That seems to be the case here. GT is destroying more than his collection, and while it is indeed his material and he has a right to do with it as he pleases, he is destroying his reputation as a historian as well.
But there is another important point here, the sometimes overly zealous enthusiasm of the railfan community. GT's material was used without acknowledgement, others have been treated as if they were a public library with people, more or less demanding free and open access. Famlies have been nagged about what to do with their husband's collection before the flowers had even wilted at the gravesite. Granted this last example could be in the name of ensuring the collection continues to be well cared for, but none of this is particularly appropriate behavior.
I guess my only defense for allowing the thread to go on (aside from my being in Chama this past weekend) is that both camps are guilty here. Some railfans seemingly treated GT as a lending library, with little respect for his rights, while he was overly sensative to that treatment. In the end everyone loses in that irreplacable material is lost. But to some extent we are all guilty here, whether it be by linking to copyrighted material on the NGDF without asigning credit, or destroying material that was supposedly in good hands, seemingly out of spite. We all need to try to think about being more considerate, whether it be on this board or in the persuit of our hobby.
This is an ugly situation, but hopefully those who are angry about how they've been treated will recognize the unwritten responsibility they've taken on in amassing their respective collections while those who would like access would recognize the fact that it is granted out of the kindness and perhaps at the inconvenience of the owner.
Don
