[INDOLOGY] Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens

Mon Jul 31 08:10:11 UTC 2023

Dear Friends,

As a footnote, and perhaps a slim chance of creating a window (??), I
recall very clearly discussions I had quite some time ago with Prof Saito
Akira about the *Japanese Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies* (IBK).
The reasoning in the beginning was that the copyright for all articles in
the journal rested with the authors, and therefore it would not be possible
to place on line those contributions for which permission could not be
obtained. This of course would be impossible, all the more so as
contributors to the earlier volumes were in many cases no longer among us.

I do not know how they resolved the question, but not so many years after
our conversation (I don't recall how long it took) everything appeared
online, and in a wonderful fashion, quite unlike --still a scandal I
think-- what one sees from France with the *Journal Asiatique*, for
instance, which is often  virtually illegible.

Also by the way, the IBK scans are linked to the inbuds.net database, which
while not perfect is searchable in many ways, and is a genuinely great
beginning to not only making bibliography available but linking it to
scans, in some cases-- along with the CiNii database  (
https://cir.nii.ac.jp/), this is a more than good model for making such
material accessible, since unlike jstor etc the inbuds database also has
keywords and the like.

Anyway, with regard to the French situation, perhaps Matthew could motivate
some of his contacts in Paris to bring to bear modern technology on that
currently difficult matter. Reading scans from Gallica sometimes evokes
nightmares of trying to read the old b/w microfilms of the Narthang
Kanjur...

best,
Jonathan

On Mon, Jul 31, 2023 at 12:08 AM Karin.Preisendanz via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

> Dear colleagues,
>
> Thank you for your interest.
>
> I had responded to Matthew immediately after he had sent his inquiry.
>
> Here is a slightly abbreviated version of my reply to him back then.
>
> ***
>
> The pre-1991 volumes are not available in scanned form. Even though in
> 2013 I spent a lot of (eventually wasted) time on this matter, together
> with the legal department of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (inasmuch
> as its publishing house is functioning as publisher since 1991), the
> Academy finally withdrew from the project of making the earlier volumes
> available on JSTOR because of 1) the demand of an inordinate amount of
> money by the still-extant successor of the Vienna publishing house
> Hollinek that had published the earliest volumes (and, of course, long
> forgotten about this until the inquiry came), and 2) their reluctance to
> get into complicated negotations with Brill which was subsequently
> acting as international "publisher on commission" until the Academy
> publishing house took over in 1991, together with Vienna-based Gerold,
> the second "publisher on commission", which is, however, definitely
> defunct.
>
> To my knowledge, Brill never responded to the inquiry by the Academy.
> The former Department of Indology (succeeded by the Department of South
> Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies) of the University of Vienna was the
> main copyrighted publisher back then, but my (or the University's)
> consent would not have been sufficient from the legal point of view to
> provided scanned versions of the volumes before 1991. Even though no
> online publications existed at the time the contracts were drawn up with
> Hollinek and Brill, the agreed-upon rights for analogue publication (in
> the latter case: the international dissemination of printed copies on
> commission) would automatically apply to any future, different types of
> publication.
>
> In the end, the Academy decided that they would not pursue the matter
> further as the volumes were not published by them in the first place and
> because it did not see much of a benefit for itself if these volumes
> were available on JSTOR at their cost. The task of negotiating with
> Hollinek and Brill would be up to JSTOR whose request had actually
> started our deliberations. This was communicated to JSTOR, but I have
> not heard from them again.
>
> However, almost all back-issues of the Journal are still available in
> perfect condition for sale by the Department; please refer to
>
> https://stb.univie.ac.at/publikationsreihen/wiener-zeitschrift-fuer-die-kunde-suedasiens-wzks/bestellung/
> or
>
> https://stb.univie.ac.at/en/publication-series/vienna-journal-of-south-asian-studies-wzks/order/
> .
>
> I would be delighted to arrange for these volumes to be sent to you or
> your library.
>
> ***
>
> With best regards,
>
> Karin Preisendanz
>
>
> Am 29.07.2023 22:27, schrieb Oliver Fallon via INDOLOGY:
> > Matthew Kapstein sent this enquiry about the WZKS almost two years
> > ago, but it does not seem to have had a reply.
> > I'm sure many of us would like to access early numbers of this
> > journal. Does anyone know if there has been any progress in making
> > them available?
> > With thanks,
> > Oliver
> >
> > On Fri, 12 Nov 2021 at 20:35, Matthew Kapstein via INDOLOGY
> > <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
> >
> >> Dear friends,
> >>
> >> From 1991 on the WZKS is available on JSTOR.
> >> Is there a accessible source for scanned copies of the pre-1991
> >> issues?
> >>
> >> with thanks in advance,
> >> Matthew
> >>
> >> Matthew Kapstein
> >> Directeur d'études, émérite
> >> Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris
> >>
> >> Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies,
> >> The University of Chicago
> >>
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-- 
Prof. dr. J.A. Silk
Leiden University
Leiden University Institute for Area Studies, LIAS
Matthias de Vrieshof 3, Room 0.05b
2311 BZ Leiden

website: www.OpenPhilology.eu
copies of my publications may be found at
https://leidenuniv.academia.edu/JASilk
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