20 Aug
2015
20 Aug
'15
3:52 a.m.
On Wed, 19 Aug 2015, Tothwolf wrote:
On Wed, 19 Aug 2015, William Donzelli wrote:
I just found this on https://www.heathkit.com/heathkit-faq.html which
confirms that despite his Big Scary Letters and legal threats, Don
Peterson -did not- hold the copyrights to Heathkit manuals:
Q. I read on the Internet that someone else owns the copyrights to
Heathkit manuals.
A. No, not correct. Heathkit has in the past given a contractual license
to certain specific parties granting a limited right to reprint and sell
paper copies of specific Heathkit manuals, to better serve valued Heathkit
customers on those special occasions when you spill coffee on your
original kit manual. Such reprinting agreements are designed to outsource
Heathkit's reprinting operations to small companies who can provide
replacement manuals cost-effectively but do not convey Heathkit's
intellectual property, only permission to reprint authorized paper
photocopies. All Heathkit copyrights remain with Heathkit.
Q. So Heath Company owns all Heathkit copyrights?
A. Yes. All Heathkit copyrights, and all Heathkit intellectual property,
are property of Heath Company.
Yes, let the guys keep selling the higher demand
documents - HP, Tek,
Heathkit. Nearly all of those are super common anyway (and plus, you will
run into problems posting Heath material). Focus on the weirder stuff -
Krohn-Hite, Systron Donner, Clough-Brengle, Packard Instrument, Kay, and
the like.
In fact, due to your time constraints, I would not bother with the HP, Tek,
or Heathkit manuals at all. They can wait for the next hoard. They are low
value targets eating up your limited resources.
I strongly disagree, but I won't repeat my reasoning here since I already
wrote some of my reasons why in another reply.
As for Heathkit though... Danger, Will Robinson!
While I mentioned legal threats and false DMCA takedowns, I didn't name any
names, however since Heathkit was brought up, and I did quite a bit of
research a number of years ago regarding Heathkit manuals, I will name names.
Don Peterson, dba "Data Professionals" in Pleasanton, CA
http://www.d8apro.com/ has for quite a number of years been sending
questionable legal threats to anyone hosting Heathkit manuals (or selling
copies of Heathkit manuals on eBay). Despite his "Big Scary Letter", he does
not appear to actually hold the copyright to /most/ Heathkit manuals (if he
holds the copyright to any...more recent discussion seems to indicate that he
was only sold the right to reproduce a selection of manuals). ...this of
course hasn't stopped hobbyists, and large numbers of Heathkit manuals are
hosted outside of the US, but quite a number of scanned manuals seem to have
been (temporarily) lost thanks to his efforts.
I did just happen to notice this statement on http://www.d8apro.com/ so
perhaps this mess is finally coming to an end?
"Press Release April 2015 Data Professionals of Pleasanton California has
been acquired by Heath Company and will focus on supporting vintage kits by
providing parts, modification, and even 'Certified Pre-Owned' Heathkits for
sale. Please watch our site for future developments."