National Historic Mining Initiative LC3
The National Historic Mining Initiative is a member of the eBay Verified Rights Owner(VeRO) Program and as a member we monitor use of copyrighted text from ourpublications. This page has been created to help eBay users better understand the properuse of our intellectual property in auction listings. We reviews items for sale on eBay toensure that customers are not confused by seeing and reading our histories within auction
listings and assuming that such listings are sponsored or approved by us. The NHMI has areputation in the historical marketplace and we aggressively protect our intellectual property
from infringement.
Why was my auction terminated?
A: Use of our copyrighted materials without permission or attribution has led to eBay pullingand cancelling your listing. Use of our materials are subject to licensing agreements.
Contact us at thelivingwest@gmail.com for further information
What if I did not realize that I was infringing on your copyright?
A: Ignorance of the law is no excuse. You must describe your items in your listing using
your own words. The photos you use must be ones you have permission to use. The words
you use must also be those you have permission to use. And just because someone else
has posted words on the internet does not mean they are free to reuse as you see fit.
We hope that this brief overview by Russell Hartill, JD, of our position helps explain why ourwords are OUR words.
My words are MY words. A phrase in Spanish goes like this… Mi Casa es Su Casa; (Myhouse is Your house) We have a cute plaque in our house that alternatively states: Mi Casa
es Mi Casa (My House is My House). It sums up my thoughts on copyright precisely: MyWords are MY words.
When I write something I am investing my time and my insights into wrapping thoughts
emotions and feelings about a topic into a unique package that evokes a style, a sense ofbeing there, or otherwise captures a specific esthetic that is distinctly my own. Try as somemight, you cannot separately or claim for your own that which I have seen, expressed andauthored and given to the world. My contribution to this planet is mine. My words may helpor hinder; my words may confuse or enlighten; my words may travel around the world or
stay in the same room in which they were written. But they will always be mine. My written
contribution may obtain an audience or one or of millions; and no matter who sees mywords (or never sees them) to me they are distinctly my children. I have happy thoughts andfond memories of how hard it was to raise them, nurture them and then send them out into
the world. I cannot be emotionally or physically detached from my words. I am their fatherand author and have bonded to them in a tangible way.
On rare occasions some of my written works evoke a sense of nostalgia or remembrance ofgreat pride and a sense of accomplishment and fulfilling a good purpose. Such are myfeelings with respect to the publication of Desert Fever. Thirty years ago an opportunity of alifetime was mine and I contributed my labors in a literary and scholarly effort with two coauthors to bring forth a history of mining in the California Desert. It received critical acclaim

and has become a standard of reference to anyone studying the history of mining inSouthern California.
I am proud of my words contained within Desert Fever and know them well and consider
them good friends. I am also somewhat protective of where they appear in public. I wantthem to be seen, but I also want them to be seen in proper context, in good environments,and I do not want them to be misunderstood or used in ways in which I do not approve.
Such is my prerogative and right as their author and father.
My words embrace mining history and I resent anyone using them to help erase mining
history. I really enjoy re-reading the history of the areas covered in Desert Fever. After allthese years, several turns of a phrase and descriptions of the mining fever we nicknamed
Desert Fever truly have become timeless classics.
Don't dilute or diminish our words.
-Russ Hartill
When it comes to the history of the mining in the American West, we believe our histories
are scholarly, accurate, comprehensive and in many cases have become the standard forcreative, dynamic history. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but plagiarism is aviolation of US Copyright law and eBay listing policies. For further information on the
National Historic Mining Initiative:
http://www.historicmines.org