[Heathkit] Heathkit Manual Copyright

[Bry Carling]

Great comments, Miles. Thank you. It makes me wonder what happens when the train 
has already left the station, as in this situation. 
How enforceable is this if someone is not selling the shcmatics for profit but gives away  
thousands and thousands of copies as .GIF files atht are on trhousands of thousands of  
computers. DCMA probably helps this copyright holder, but he must have a very thick skin  
after all the things people wrote about him on various groups a couple of years ago when this  
started...

You can still download most Heathkit manuals on the web from various countries, and a lot of  
guys still send them to each other under cover of darkness where prying eyes can't watch. 
Is it illegal to talk about e-mailing them to someone? OR is it the act of reading the manual 
that could get someone in trouble with the law? 

Is it the possession of these GIF files that is illegal? The transmission of them? The sharing  
of  them? The selling - I can see that last one for sure as a prosecutable offense, but wonder  
about the others, especially since so many communities can't even afford to put real  
criminals in jail for the full time of their sentences.

It sounds like your last statement about patent could be a powerful one.

>  however, invite a better copyright lawyer than I to investigate
> the
> question of how far the air use doctrine may apply to the case
> of
> republishing schematic diagrams and " by way of example "
> alignment
> procedures. 
> 
> There may also be a question of whether Heathkit was attempting to
> use
> copyright law to protect something that can only be protected by a
> patent.