Copyrights Re: EC-1 (was Re: Re[2]: Computer Values)

From: Joe <rigdonj_at_intellistar.net>
Date: Sat May 30 10:10:32 1998

At 12:04 AM 5/30/98 -0400, you wrote:
>Joe wrote:
>>
>> At 09:23 PM 5/29/98 -0500, you wrote:
>> >On Fri, 29 May 1998, Shawn Rutledge wrote:
>> >
>> >> FWIW, the company that currently sells Heathkit manual reprints doesn't
>> >> look too kindly on people publishing web manuals from what I've heard.
>> >> I'd sure like to publish my stash too if I could do so without getting
>> sued.
>> >
>> >Hmm, I know that any patents associated with the EC-1 have expired by
>> >now, but I don't recall how long a copyright lasts (more than 38 years, I
>> >suspect).
>>
>> Yes, but are they still valid if the owner is out of business? I know
>> the HK manuals are WIDELY copied and the copies sold. So are Tektronix, HP
>> and a lot of others, and they're still in business!
>>
>It depends, copyright law now extends to something like 60 years past
>the author's death, and of course corporations never _die_, they are
>bought up by others who abandon the product and deny that it ever
>existed -- witness VisiCalc by Personal Software renamed VisiCorp then
>buried by Lotus when they bought VisiCorp, nowadays Lotus is owned by
>IBM (makers of my beloved RS/6000 line) and who knows whether or not
>IBM will pursue a copyright violation there?, since the machines that
>ran VisiCalc are (mostly) long dead. Case law seems to be vague and/or
>variable -- since when the copyright laws were last (poorly, from the
>point of view of a libertarian) rewritten, software for anybody except
>large businesses or governments was not a factor. My personal opinion
>is to copy the stuff and wait for the writer to object

  Ward,

  (Rant on)

  Good point! In a lot of cases the large corporations bought up the
rights to this kind of stuff without even knowing when they bought out
other companies. A good example is Martin Marietta owning the rights to the
Terak computers. I remember someone on this list is trying to get them to
release the rights.

  The problem is that EVERYTHING that's printed today is copy-righted.
Even the wrappers on McDonald's hamburgers are copy righted! Furthermore,
don't the copyright laws ban copying FOR PURPOSES OF COMMERCIAL PROFIT?
and NOT for personal non-profit use? If so, then you or I are free to copy
someone else's manual FOR OUR OWN USE.

   I think this not copying stuff because of copy rights has been carried
to a rediculous extreme. I know people that won't copy an ad brochure
because it's copyrighted. Well obviously the company that wrote it did so
for the purposes of having the public read it. Surely they won't object to
having even more copies made and even more people read it!

    (Rant off)

   Joe
Received on Sat May 30 1998 - 10:10:32 BST