
14,000 Images of the French Revolution Released Online (2014) - lermontov
http://hyperallergic.com/106358/14000-images-of-the-french-revolution-released-online/
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incompatible
It would be even cooler if they weren't claiming copyright on their
reproduction of public domain images. "The use of these contents for
commercial purposes is subject to payment and covered by a license."

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guessbest
I don't understand how images outside of copyright can have a license
enforced.

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cooper12
Some countries like the UK have a "Sweat of the Brow" [0] doctrine which lets
them claim copyright by virtue of the effort put in to compile the work.
However it isn't recognized in the U.S because they doesn't see this as
requiring creativity so it doesn't count as a derivative work. This has the
benefit that companies can't circumvent the public domain without altering the
work, but it also disincentives them from digitizing older works. I don't know
if french law acknowledges the doctrine or not. Regardless it is pretty
unbecoming of a project started by government archivists and headed by a
national library, though I do understand that they might want to recoup some
of their costs.

[0]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweat_of_the_brow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweat_of_the_brow)

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guessbest
But the site with the reproductions is hosted[1] in the USA[2], right? If so,
then one could conclude that there is no copyright on the digital
reproductions.

[1] [http://frda.stanford.edu/](http://frda.stanford.edu/)

[2] © Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305

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cooper12
I think the copyright notice at the bottom is just website boilerplate. it's
also on the main Stanford library website. The about page says "For commercial
use, contact: utilisation.commerciale@bnf.fr", so it is the Bibliothèque
nationale de France that is claiming copyright. IANAL, but I think you'd be
pretty safe using those images on servers hosted in the USA because then you'd
be under the jurisdiction of U.S copyright law, but things can get messy as in
this case where a British Museum threatened to take the Wikimedia Foundation
to UK court:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Portrait_Gallery_and_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Portrait_Gallery_and_Wikimedia_Foundation_copyright_dispute).

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frozenport
I really like

An astronomer looking at the stars, and falling into an abyss (1789-92) (via
French Revolution Digital Archive) [http://hyperallergic.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/01/frenchre...](http://hyperallergic.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/01/frenchrevolutionarchive9.jpeg)

As it reminds us that the pursuit of scientific knowledge can often distract
brilliant people from addressing social problems. I wonder if the glut of
research scientists is one of the mechanisms by which the status quo is
preserved.

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cm2187
I am not convinced scientists' role should be to address social problems.
Beside since we are talking about France, most of the scientists that were
politically engaged were Stalinists.

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espadrine
Your comment shows a profound misunderstanding of History, as Stalin was born
90 years after the French Revolution (and Karl Marx 30 years). Even while
Stalin was alive, few if any French scientists were Stalinists, as by the time
he rose to power France was diplomatically closer to the US than they were to
the USSR.

During the Revolution, and preceding it, it turns out that many scientists
were involved or even instrumental in the social progress that occurred. The
simple act of imposing the metric system was meant as a way to eradicate the
imperial in "imperial system". The Enlightenment caused the rise of many ideas
of equality that can be said to have triggered the Revolution.

Of course, the extremes of the Terror also caused some scientists that were
not deemed invested enough to lose their head, such as Lavoisier, the man that
proved the conservation of mass. It should be noted that the government
apologised a year or so later.

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cm2187
I am not talking about French scientists being Stalinist during the French
revolution but being Stalinist under Stalin and until the 70s.

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espadrine
Stalinism is defined by policies of state terror, state centralization,
purging the government and maintaining a cult of personality. Those are pretty
extreme positions to hold.

Historically, many of Stalin's actions were not seen keenly in France,
including Stalin's Gulags, his pact with Hitler, and over the cold war, his
territorial aggressivity over the USSR's satellite countries. You may note
that France was very decidedly on the other side of the Iron Curtain.

There definitely were quite a few socialists, there were a few communists,
there probably were few Leninists, but I doubt there were any Stalinists. I'd
be interested in the scientist's name if you found one.

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cm2187
The communist party was the largest political party in France after the war
and it was fully and openly aligned to Moscow. You may (and should) interpret
being a stalinist as a bad thing today but it wasn't at that time for a large
portion of the left.

But my point is rather that being good at math and at creating mathematical
representations of nature doesn't qualify someone to make decisions on how
other people should live their life.

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frozenport
But Democracy requires everybody to participate in the political process.

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yitchelle
[http://frda.stanford.edu/](http://frda.stanford.edu/)

The direct link to the actual images.

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yeukhon
Thank you! Very cool animation. I assume D3.js (on mobile not seeing the
source code).

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harshnisar
I think it is timeline.js

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monjedetonsura
" Stam with a skull and guillotines with the words “liberty” and “fraternity”
(1799) (via French Revolution Digital Archive) "

Nope, it says fraternite & égalité (equality).

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cyanbane
Please change 14k to 14,000 (value vs quantity). Although I should have been
smart enough to realize that the latter could not exist, it may be better to
state it empirically without getting people's hope's up. :)

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dang
Sorry, that was us. Changed.

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jobigoud
Please change 14,000 to 14 000 as per SI?

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coldpie
I prefer "fourteen kiloillustrations".

