Here are 5 images from SpringerImages to give an idea of the breadth of coverage. Note that none of these are “scientific” – graphs, etc. All are copyrighted by Springer (in some form). I do not believe any of the original sources are Springer journals or books (i.e. they are third party material publisher with/out permission in Springer outlets.
HYPOTHESIS – none of the original creators are aware of and approve of Springer copyrighting the material and badging it with SpringerImages.
http://www.springerimages.com/Images/HumanitiesArts/1-10.1007_s10460-009-9209-6-0
http://www.springerimages.com/Images/HumanitiesArts/1-10.1007_s10583-009-9098-8-10
Fig 11
Katie in the ravine. © Groundwood Books, 2008
http://www.springerimages.com/Images/HumanitiesArts/1-10.1007_s10583-009-9098-8-13
Fig 14
Iris falling from the sky. © Jim Zubkavich, 2006
http://www.springerimages.com/Images/HumanitiesArts/1-10.1007_978-90-481-8647-1_3-5
Fig 6
The rescue of baby Jessica. Source: “The Baby Jessica Rescue Web Page,” http://www.caver.net/j/jrescue.html . Accessed 24 November 2008
http://www.springerimages.com/Images/HumanitiesArts/1-10.1007_s10912-006-9025-6-1
HYPOTHESIS: originally from http://www.ronsangels.com/
Springer knew my opinion on its product because I posted the following message to liblicense:
“MIME-Version: 1.0
Received: by 10.204.70.80 with HTTP; Thu, 9 Jul 2009 14:08:58 -0700 (PDT)
Date: Thu, 9 Jul 2009 23:08:58 +0200
Delivered-To: klausgraf@gmail.com
Message-ID:
Subject: How Springer Images is damaging Open Access
From: Klaus Graf
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Cc: pm286@cam.ac.uk, Peter Suber
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
There is a new Toll Access database (with a small free section) called
Springer Images which contains pictures under a Creative Commons
Noncommercial License (resulting from Springer’s Open Choice) but
without mentioning the license.
See http://archiv.twoday.net/stories/5814210/ (in German)
It is questionable if it is not legal what Springer is doing but I am
convinced that it is definitively against the spirit of Open
Access/Open Choice. If someone pays 3000 dollars for a CC-BY-NC
license he should get it. This means also that non-commercial
datamining must be allowed because the license allows it. If Springer
uses the images of Open Choice articles Springer has to tag them with
their CC license! (BTW: Google has now announced officially the CC
filter in its Image Search.)
Klaus Graf”
Please note the CC: beside Peter Suber PETER MURRAY RUST. There was NO reaction of PMR in 2009 on my mail.
Thanks Klaus,
I’m very grateful to you for identifying this in 2009, and well ahead of my curve. In this area we all have our particular areas of interest and can only deal with a limited number. In 2009 this wasn’t an issue for me – now it is. So it’s great to have us pointing in the same direction.
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