Few members of the RBTI Yahoo group are aware of how long I have prayed for a comprehensive compendium of all the RBTI materials out there. My own efforts to develop such a tool kept falling short. One day the thought came that perhaps there was someone in the community who could undertake (and finish) the job. And then young Joel Horst came into view.
So I wrote to him. "Yes," he said, "I'll think about it." So I sent him a portable hard drive pre-loaded with information about every single RBTI document, photo, note, or whatever I had ever uncovered so that he could untangle, sort, list, and compile everything, all of it, into a usable database.
And Joel came through. It took two years, but the finished product is worth the wait. The most exciting part of his work is that he was willing to tackle the Gordian Knot of comprehending copyright. None of us will ever fully understand copyright law, but it seems Joel has as good a grasp as any layman will ever gain. It should be understood by all that if you need certification of the copyright status of any piece or part of that vast Reams/RBTI "library," you must work with copyright lawyers. However, the government copyright office has issued many explanatory notices intended to help us determine when we need to employ lawyers and when we may simply proceed. Thank you, Joel, for helping us get a slightly better handle on which materials we may safely share and which we cannot.
All readers should understand that this author, this website, this whole RBTI community must and will observe copyright law. However, that should not mean that we must always fear to share materials simply because it is possible that someone, somewhere, somehow could be offended. We now have a path.
And Joel came through. It took two years, but the finished product is worth the wait. The most exciting part of his work is that he was willing to tackle the Gordian Knot of comprehending copyright. None of us will ever fully understand copyright law, but it seems Joel has as good a grasp as any layman will ever gain. It should be understood by all that if you need certification of the copyright status of any piece or part of that vast Reams/RBTI "library," you must work with copyright lawyers. However, the government copyright office has issued many explanatory notices intended to help us determine when we need to employ lawyers and when we may simply proceed. Thank you, Joel, for helping us get a slightly better handle on which materials we may safely share and which we cannot.
All readers should understand that this author, this website, this whole RBTI community must and will observe copyright law. However, that should not mean that we must always fear to share materials simply because it is possible that someone, somewhere, somehow could be offended. We now have a path.
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