[Heathkit] No more HP/Agilent manuals on BAMA

[Glen Zook]

With the upholding of the Bono Ammendment by the
Supreme Court a couple of years ago, copyrights in the
United States are now for 95 years instead of the
internationally recognized Berne Convention length of
75 years.  United States copyrights are only honored
outside of the United States and posessions for 75
years but, within the United States and posessions a
copyright now runs for 95 years.

Everything is copyrighted when it is created.  All
registering does is make it easier to recover "treble"
(triple) damages from someone who has violated the
copyright.

Just placing something on the Internet does NOT put
the item into "public domain" as many people seem to
think.

You can purchase a copy of Copyright Law of the United
States of America for about $24 from the government
bookstore or you can download the "latest and
greatest" version for free from

http://www.copyright.gov/title17/index.html

All copyrights are still owned by someone even though
the company may have disappeared over the years.

It is fortunate that most of the manufacturers of
amateur radio equipment have seen fit not to enforce
their copyrights.  I believe that the majority just
don't want to "fool around" providing copies of older
manuals.  But, at any time, they can most certainly
"put their foot down" and stop all copying,
distribution, etc., of their manuals by BAMA, W7FG,
and other sources.

Collins was probably the first company to exercise
their copyrights.  However, they have given the
Collins Collectors' Association permission to
distribute their manuals via the Internet at no cost
to the person downloading the material.  This is a
good compromise between the company retaining the
publishing rights yet making the material readily
available.

I definitely applaud Ken, K4XL's attempt to provide
manuals for the old, "boat anchor", equipment.  In
fact, whenever I come across a manual for an item that
is not on the site (especially the more "rare"
equipment) I scan the material and upload it to BAMA. 
But, I also recognize the fact that any manufacturer
(or subsequent company or person who now owns the
copyrights to the manuals) has the absolute right to
take control of their copyrighted material and to
request (actually "demand") that the material be
removed from any site on which it is posted.

As for those companies that make copies of manuals for
profit they are actually liable for monentary damages
to the copyright holder.  Fortunately, for them, the
vast majority of copyright holders have seen "fit" to
allow the reproduction of the manuals.  But, right
now, at any time, any copyright holder can stop the
reproduction of their manuals that have been printed
after 1 January 1910.  After 1 January 2006 that
changes to 1 January 1911.  Under present United
States law copyrighted material is placed in the
public domain on 1 January of the year following the
95th anniversary of the inception of the copyright.

Since I hold copyrights on well over 1000 items
(magazine articles, newspaper columns, etc.), I try to
"keep up" with the copyright law.  I definitely am not
an attorney, but the copyright law was among the first
to be rewritten in "plain English" and not the
"legaleze" that most laws are written.  As such, it
really is not that hard for the "layman" to
understand.

>From a "practical" standpoint reproducing the older
manuals or making them available on the Internet is
not usually harmful to the original copyright holder. 
But, from a "legal" standpoint any copyright holder is
definitely withing their "rights" to control where and
when the material is reproduced.

Glen, K9STH

Glen, K9STH

Web sites

http://home.comcast.net/~k9sth
http://home.comcast.net/~zcomco


		
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