As many of you know, I have almost entirely given up on this site because it continues to provide a base of operations to an individual already banned twice for violating basically all of its rules, from posting copyrighted photos to damaging relationships with photography producers like Topps to doxxing members.
I had not been on the site for about a month. But now, a friend at the HOF who knows of my participation here has been in touch with me about this individual's latest transgression, which is quoted below.
The only parts of this latest post from Rico43/Rainmaker (or whatever the 2nd banned identity was)/HomeFree that are correct are:
1. John Horne did replay to his email, as he does to any member of the public who inquires about these matters.
2. The Hall of Fame did receive a donation to facilitate an upgrade to the photo collection.
The rest of it is inaccurate. The upgrade will not be completed this year. It will take several years. No change in rights restrictions or fees is anticipated. And the HOF is not currently taking orders for prints or reproductions from HIM because he was caught posting McWilliams images from their collection on this site and claiming he 'found them somewhere.' The process for authors and researchers and journalists and even members of the public to obtain prints and/or rights is unchanged.
As was the case with Topps, I had done a little behind the scenes low-key lobbying with the HOF to encourage them to find ways that would increase their footprint in the fields of both research and memorabilia, by posting hard-to-find player images on the HOF site, in blogs, in stories, etc. You may recall that awhile back a long-sought shot of Jim Perry with the '75 A's conveniently popped up in a HOF card blog by Bruce Markusen - that's how it happened.
So again - and again, as with Topps - this kind of relationship in which some things many on this board would like to see, are released into the wild with no strings attached by people who don't have to do a damn thing for us, is jeopardized by the selfishness of one member who a) wants it all b) wants it right now c) wants credit for it.
I can't tell you what to do, because apparently permanent bans mean nothing here. But if you're looking for some of the treasures from the McWilliams collection to be made available by the HOF, that ship has sailed and been replaced by people talking about lawyers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Home Free
Last month, I got in contact with John Horne, who is the Coordinator of Rights and Reproductions for the Baseball Hall of Fame. He shared the good news that the Hall has, after a considerable delay, received a donation or grant to digitally copy their entire photo archive.
As a result, everything (including the entire McWilliams Collecltion) should be online by late spring or early summer. The Hall as a result is not currently taking any orders for prints or reproductions until the archive and transfer of images is complete. That should be in the first half of 2019, Horne seemed to indicate.
I'm sure there will still be righits restrictions, but there will be much more ready access to these images.
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