SHAREWARE STATUS |
Basilisk is currently supported through massive bootstrap efforts on my part (ed keller), and sponsorship from some of the firms/individuals involved. We are operating right now in the hope that as 'www shareware', some of you out there will feel an impulse to assist us in our expenses. We need all the sponsors we can get!


BROWSER/ACCESS ISSUES |
You must use NETSCAPE to see our layout. Open your browser window to full screen on 14 " monitors, and larger on 17" monitors, for best layout. Use a 12 point sans serif font like Gil Sans or Helvetica for both your fixed size and scalable text. And turn off those pesky buttons on top, too. Just take up as much screen real estate as you can!

If you are accessing basilisk from a slower connexion (read:14.4k or slower) you may want to turn off your image loading.

Basilisk will look best on Netscape, and in 24 bit color. This has a lot to do with inline JPEGs; much of our layout depends on inline jpeg and background images. All of the links should work with other browsers. However for the inlines (the graphic layout) you will need Netscape. I regret that this may perturb some out there using Mosaic. If you object to this line of reasoning, send me some mail: mantis@basilisk.com. So far, 75% of our readers are accessing using Netscape 1.1. Join them!

COMPLETE COPYRIGHT STATEMENT |
All work on basilisk is copyright the author except where noted. Any reproduction of contents of basilisk without previous approval from the author or basilisk constitutes a copyright infringement. (There are clearly defined boundaries to this in copyright law which specify fair use of certain materials. It is a good idea to assume that if you don't know what fair use means, you shouldn't be reproducing the images. You can investigate fair use through the legal links on this PAGE.) Several authors have indicated to a greater or lesser degree how stringently they feel about copyright issues. For instance, Perry Hall and Ed Keller have made the following requests about their work:

It is the author's wish that readers/viewers may freely reproduce/manipulate and otherwise consume or modify text and images ONLY if full credit is given to the author and the author is contacted. Any failure to include credit will constitute a copyright infringement. You may copy text and images to give to a friend, if you include the basilisk HTTP/email address and relevant info. Please do not copy a text and post it elsewhere: make a link to our site instead. The only exception in that case might be if you are desperate to post a text to a newsgroup for people without WWW access. In that case, AGAIN, please maintain author and source info with the text. In any case, please inform basilisk/the author that you want to copy the text. We will almost certainly say yes- so, DO get in touch. This applies to all texts, all CGI images at the site, basilisk logos, and the site design itself. THANKS!
Ed Keller, mantis@basilisk.com.
Perry Hall, ph@mass-illusion.com.

Tanuja Desai ( ferret@basilisk.com.) and Antony Widoff ( woff@interport.com.) have requested that NONE of their work be reproduced elsewhere.

Please abide by each person's stated wishes. And if it seems unclear, assume that you shouldn't just copy it, and drop us some email asking for permission.

ED. NOTE | There are some very interesting sites on the web that deal with copyright and intellectual property issues. This is a tremendously important area right now as what constitutes a reproduction is up for grabs, to some extent, in the digital realm. There are also moral and ethical issues of great consequence raised. A question I enjoy asking, as an architect, is why photographers can copyright their pictures of my buildings? In fact, if I were to reproduce a photographer's image of my building, I could be liable....Very interesting. One year ago an April fools editorial in Mondo 2000 poked some wry fun at this idea... it was disturbing, then frightening, then hilarious, and left one realizing just how imbalanced copyright law is. To approach this from a completely different angle is revealing as well- say, vis a vis the entire Negativeland/U2 imbroglio, or from Max Ernst's POV, cf. his collage novels. In fact, cf. Rauschenberg...and so many others. What constitutes an illegal use, versus an appropriation? What might we call Kathy Acker's amazing collage novel In Memoriam to Identity?

I have only partial answers to these questions, and I have to say that, having had my own work published uncredited on several occasions by unscrupulous colleagues, I feel that following the guidelines set out above are a bare minimum. Fair use of materials is clearly stated in some of the copyright documents I have linked to from this essay. The goal I have in maintaining basilisk is the distribution of information and the creation of a dialogic environment. I agree with the credo that information wants to be free... but, I don't agree with liberating it wholesale. This issue should be unpacked within a critical ethical structure that protects the creator from exploitation and damages. 

                                -ed keller,  mantis@basilisk.com.


ZONES |