[ARC5] More Information on Fair Use| U.S. Copyright Office

[Brian]

Hello Phillip,

Using the internet to ask for freebies invites a form of resale over which 
you have no control - other list members may download the circuit and not be 
as scrupulous as you. You may well make something based on the circuit, with 
no intention of sale let alone profit; but when your estate is liquidated, 
will there be a copyright warning? I'm not even sure that you need to resell 
an item if the court can be satisfied that you intended to avoid paying for 
the published item. A quick check on whether the item is still in copyright 
might relieve your soul ...

Building alternate power supplies for Command sets has been a major driver 
for many experimenters; they may publish the circuit, but not provide 
performance details, eg, what is the regulation, ripple, temperature rise, 
life of the components (MTBF), risk of downstream damage if it fails? 
Examples abound in 73 Amateur Radio Today (now deceased) and in the 
three-volume set by Evanson and Beech covering 'emancipation' of WWII 
surplus radio equipment. Should you get an HT SMPS to work, then you will 
face the dilemma of publishing or making design and performance details 
freely available.

You may also want to get in touch with Dave Stinson, who has carried out a 
great deal of experimenting with Command sets, running Rxs at quite low HT, 
such as 90V, and publishing his results on the arc5 list. I have added his 
email address as a cc so you can contact him. Lovely fellow.

On Saturday, October 17, 2015 4:15 PM, you said:

Hi Brian,

I have found an open source circuit diagram for a 180vdc converter that 
should work for my needs to build a power source for B+ so I don't need the 
circuit in question.

Before I retired, I managed the Technology Transfer Program for the U.S. 
Department of Energy at one of its National Laboratories and am well aware 
of the laws governing intellectual property, including fair use.

I'll not go into further discussion of the subject as there are many view 
points. I wasn't intending any harm to either the author or publisher as I 
had no intention to sell or even use the information as-is but was wanting 
to see the general design so as to guide the building of a similar power 
source but at differing voltages and using differing components to power my 
own Command Set radios. I definitely had no intention of theft of property 
as you imply. If I were to have used the information exactly as published to 
replicate an exact power source to sell to others for profit then I would 
consider it theft. The same rules apply to patent law. The information can 
be shared for educational use but one may not use such information to build 
and sell like property for profit based on the information learned.

I have since located other circuits at voltages closer to my needs that were 
available open source to use as guides in designing my own power circuit for 
my personal radios.

Thank you for sharing your view point.

Respectfully,

Phillip