25 Jan
2009
25 Jan
'09
10:28 a.m.
cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote:
Subject: RE: someone selling bitsavers cd's on
ebay?
On the one hand you can argue: they are just offering
a service for people who can't download large
volumes of
documents. On the other hand, all of us are skating
on some
thin ice by scanning copyrighted material in the hopes
that
nobody really cares. It seems like a bad precedent
for
someone to be selling them for profit.
Subject: RE: someone selling bitsavers cd's on ebay?
The way I see it, the worst possible example of what might
happened has already happened: someone bought, via an E-bay
auction, the rights to all Heathkit manuals and then threatened
legal action against every single archive of scanned Heath material
on the web, causing them all to shut down.
I'm not saying that anything illegal happened, just that the
end result is a damned shame.
I have a lot of Heath stuff, and while I happened to have the
original 40 or 50 year old manuals with much of it, most of the original
manuals are in pretty sad physical shape today. I would use the
scans on the web in preference to the physical manual because I was
afraid more of the pages would fall out or even worse, the fold-out
schematics would disintegrate more.
Tim.
25 Jan
25 Jan
3:24 p.m.
Tim Shoppa wrote:
I'm not saying that anything illegal happened,
just that the
end result is a damned shame.
Indeed. That said, it's capitalism, pure and simple. The contract is online
here -- http://www.tech-systems-labs.com/pdf-files/Agreement.pdf -- if
anyone's interested. $5000 for the entire Heathkit back-catalogue seems like a
pretty sweet deal...
I suppose the ultimate solution to this would be a pre-emptive strike of
sorts. Find out who owns the copyright to at least some of these manuals, then
ask for permission to distribute them as long as no charge is made for doing so.
The ideal would be to buy up the copyright for as many companies' manuals as
you can, then turn around and release them under GFDL or something.
Or you go for the middle ground -- AIUI there's a "gentleman's
agreement"
between Tektronix and the electronics community at large. IIRC the terms were
something along the lines of "if the product has been out of production for
more than X years, and the manual is out of print, then owners of our gear may
copy/distribute the manuals as long as the copyright page is intact and no
charge is made for duplication". Again, I can't remember the exact terms, but
ISTR there was a letter posted to the "TekScopes" mailing list at one point
when permission was obtained.
Staying in the test equipment field for a bit, a couple of years ago, Agilent
started gathering copies of the manuals for their older test gear. That is to
say, stuff from the HP days -- 1650-series logic analysers, and even older
than that. What did they do with these manuals?
Scanned them and put them on their website. For free download.
This kind of behaviour can only be applauded (unless you're one of the
bottom-feeding leeches trying to sell manuals for a vast profit on ebay, in
which case, "ha ha ha, sucks to you")
TTFN,
--
Phil.
classiccmp at philpem.me.uk
http://www.philpem.me.uk/
5:20 p.m.
$5000 for the entire Heathkit back-catalogue seems
like
a pretty sweet deal...
Yes, it is. Buying originals of all the Heathkit manuals would cost
you that much.
I suppose the ultimate solution to this would be a
pre-emptive strike of
sorts. Find out who owns the copyright to at least some of these manuals,
then ask for permission to distribute them as long as no charge is made for
doing so.
And what would the copyright holder get in return?
--
Will
3:54 p.m.
On Sun, 2009-01-25 at 13:28 -0500, Tim Shoppa wrote:
cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote:
The *rights* to the Heathkit manuals were on eBay?
[citation needed]...
Subject: RE: someone selling bitsavers cd's
on ebay?
On the one hand you can argue: they are just offering
a service for people who can't download large
volumes of
documents. On the other hand, all of us are skating
on some
thin ice by scanning copyrighted material in the hopes
that
nobody really cares. It seems like a bad precedent
for
someone to be selling them for profit.
Subject: RE: someone selling bitsavers cd's on ebay?
The way I see it, the worst possible example of what might
happened has already happened: someone bought, via an E-bay
auction, the rights to all Heathkit manuals and then threatened
legal action against every single archive of scanned Heath material
on the web, causing them all to shut down. I'm not saying that anything illegal happened,
just that the
end result is a damned shame.
Sod 'em. Host them somewhere else.
Gordon
5590
days inactive
5591
days old
3 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
-
classiccmp＠philpem.me.uk -
gordonjcp＠gjcp.net -
shoppa＠trailing-edge.com -
wdonzelli＠gmail.com