A naive defence of Metal Detecting and Knowledge Theft

Heritage Action discuss ('A naive defence of Metal Detecting' 30/11/2014) the sort of arguments that regularly get trotted out to bolster the façade.

Faced with wrongdoing by colleagues, detectorists often use the “Not Me” defence. Fair enough if true but not if not. For example, we recently cited a detectorist (“Mr A***r”) saying he doesn’t report all finds to PAS and is threatening to not report Treasure – whereupon the Chairman of his previous club left a “Not Me” comment saying they had ejected him for misbehaviour. [...] ”The problem is that, incredibly, despite masses of virtuous talk, hardly any detecting clubs insist on members keeping to the official code or reporting all finds to PAS ! That’s why “Not Me” is an uncomfortable defence.

As is pointed out, in Bonkers Britain, despite saying that keeping to the official code is the only acceptable way to conduct the hobby, in fact neither the Government nor PAS say a word about the fact that so few do. It's a matter of tarring all the tekkies with the same brush, some do, ergo they are all good guys. I see no reason, just because there are many jobsworths who acquiesce in total and embarrassed silence, we all should. Heritage Action and myself quite often face indignant demands like the following:

“When are you going to stop banging on about the same thing week after week, who the hell do you think you are?” writes a detectorist yesterday. To which we’d reply: the day after you all stop stealing the public’s knowledge – who the hell do you think YOU are?