Copyright??

[JB]

I have noticed a lot of requests for copies of diagrams, etc. from service literature. I have also noticed members providing copies to other members.<br /><br />Published material offered for sale is almost always copyrighted. I think that means that the right to copy is reserved to the copyright owner, and the material may not be legally copied by anyone else.<br /><br />Having been a writer, and having had my material stolen to avoid paying for it I am very sensitive on this point.<br /><br />Being common practice does not make it legal in my mind.<br /><br />Is there a copyright specialized attorney out there that can explain this? Maybe I am missing something.

 

[mellowyellow]

Re: Copyright??

a good question JB... not a lawyer, but think<br />there's a difference between sharing and selling<br />for profit. in any case, always a good idea to<br />give the proper credit and source.<br />M.Y.

 

[SpinnerBait_Nut]

Re: Copyright??

I don't know, but you can go to about any library and get copies of about anything you want.<br /><br />I know here at our's, you can go in and look at repair books, find what you need and get a copy of it.

 

[rwise]

Re: Copyright??

JB<br />I think that you are correct, they did not intend for their efforts to be shared for free. The school my kids attend buys one copy of a schoolbook and makes copies for the students to use, me thinks this to be a VERY bad example of what’s right and what’s wrong! People copy software, music and many other things and even if they intended for it to be distributed (for monetary gain) or not it gets there. It makes us have to have more laws to follow and costs everyone in the end. Just look at all the copyright lawsuits today. Even one in California filed for not having the copyright on the outside of the package so it can be read before purchase.<br />Richard

 

[mattttt25]

Re: Copyright??

jb- i did a quick search on the internet and found a thousand sites dedicated to explaining copyright law. after reading a few, i'm dumber than when i started. there are all sorts of clauses and exceptions to the rules (fair use rule, library, arts and museum (LAM) rule, etc). real confusing stuff.

 

[martyscher]

Re: Copyright??

I'm not a lawyer, but I can certainly act like one <br /><br />A copyright is granted automatically to the creator, when the work is created.<br /><br />Registering the work with the copyright office helps establish the copyright owner and helps legally to enforce copyright enfringements, but is not necessary to protect copyrights, but there is more burden on the creator.<br /><br />The bottom line is virtually every work is copyrighted by someone (dead or alive). There are time limits, but they are generally pretty long, so the newer stuff is protected.<br /><br />Within limits, any reproduction without the copyright holder's permission, is technically a copyright violation.<br /><br />Whether or not it is enforced, is a different story.<br /><br />Some copyright holders may not know that their works are being copied. Some may know and don't care. Many may know, but do not think it is worth the effort (time and money,)to go after the offenders.<br /><br />The Internet and digital imaging, including international copyright laws (if they exist) just makes it that much harder to protect copyrights.<br /><br />It's a jungle out there.<br /><br />Marty

 

[JB]

Re: Copyright??

Here are a couple of examples from my experience.<br /><br />A research institute that trained Nuclear Medical Technicians wanted to provide copies of a primer manual I had written on liquid scintillation spectrometers to their students, several hundred. They approached my employer and negotiated a license to make and distribute copies only to their students. They paid for the right to share the material.<br /><br />A large, Hi-tech company made a pamphlet out of a dozen or so articles I had written on industrial training for a journal and used it to train their Technical Instructors. When the Journal found out it sued and won. The journal had, for sale, a bound collection of the articles, with others, for $50.<br /><br />Neither organization sold the copies, but the second one denied the owner of copyright profit from sales of the product.<br /><br />Now. Is it fair to the people who have Service Manuals for sale if Joe member seeks to avoid buying the manual by getting Jim member to copy selected pages for him? Is he going to be back next week seeking more?<br /><br />I am as anxious to help those in need as most, but I need to be honest and fair with the people who make the industry run, too.

 

[martyscher]

Re: Copyright??

Let's all be lawyers, JB, as copyright law is much fun. <br /><br />I believe that your one example (the research institute) would have been OK to copy for free.<br /><br />There is a "fair use" clause in US copyright law, that allows educational entities to distribute "limited" reproductions for educational uses.<br /><br />On the second one, are the articles your's, or the company you work for? If you are the owner, then you have the rights.

 

[mellowyellow]

Re: Copyright??

yo dude...."liquid scintillation"? LOL

 

[JB]

Re: Copyright??

Howdy, Martyscher.<br /><br />The research institute was a private, for profit company.<br /><br />The journal articles belonged to the journal. They paid me to write them and to surrender copyrights.<br /><br />Hi, MY.<br /><br />Liquid scintillation is a technique for detecting minute amounts of very weak radionuclides used as tracers in biomedical and other research. The LS spectrometer can also identify what radionuclides are present in what amounts. Carbon-14 dating is an example of an application.

 

[NathanY]

Re: Copyright??

Here is my opinion on the subject:<br /><br />If someone does not have a manual, and they need a page copied, because they either dont have a manual, or they have ordered one and it has not come in yet, and someone else offers to copy it and send it to them, SO WHAT ! That is called helping out a friend. I think that is a nice thing to do. But if it habitual for said person to do this then I would have to say maybe not.

 

[SpinnerBait_Nut]

Re: Copyright??

I would say that if anyone on this board needed it and I had it, then I would copy it and send it to them.<br /><br />I think that anyone on the board would do the same thing.<br /><br />Now if you was going to charge for that service, then that would be wrong, but if not, then it's just like Nathan said, you are just helping someone out.<br /><br />But ofcourse, I don't have anything with a copyright and I sure as hell don't know anything about spectrometers and radionuclides.

 

[Hooty]

Re: Copyright??

I just did a quick scan of one of my OMC manuals and it doesn't say diddly about "copyright". It does say "All Rights Reserved".<br /><br />c/6<br /><br />Hooty

 

[SpinnerBait_Nut]

Re: Copyright??

Yea hooty, but does that mean the same thing?

 

[Hooty]

Re: Copyright??

?<br /><br />c/6<br /><br />Hooty

 

[roscoe]

Re: Copyright??

It takes very little to copyright something. And in many cases, it offers you very little protection. Everything on tv is copyrighted. But how many times have you seen stories, jokes, characters, etc... used by others. Hundreds.<br /><br />How many things have you cut and pasted from other web sites, then emailed or posted them elsewhere? How about an article from the newspaper?<br /><br />I think I will copyright a picture of my face, then when my 15 seconds of fame comes along, I'll be able to sue everyone that ran a picture of me.<br /><br />Bottom line: If it is not available for purchase, then it should be ok to copy/give away.<br /><br />What about letting your father-in-law copy a page out of your manual? Its gonna be dang costly if you don't.

 

[rwise]

Re: Copyright??

I think I would let the father-in-law take the whole book and never ask for it back! I can get another book.<br />Richard

 

[martyscher]

Re: Copyright??

Like most everything else, motor manuals are protected by copyrights, whether they say so, or not.<br /><br />Copying pages out of them without permission, is a copyright violation. One would think they would much rather sell another manual, than just let people copy pages for free, anyway.<br /><br />Whether anybody knows about it, or is willing to enforce a copyright, is another story.<br /><br />Marty

 

[Fishbusters]

Re: Copyright??

It all boils down to this. If I buy it and make copies for MY own personal (non-buisness) use it is cool if I sell or give it away I am wrong. If I borrow it from a library and copy it for MY personal use it is okay but I can't sell or give it away and most definitly can not use it in something I write for any sort of publication including a paper for a teacher w/o citing where it came from. Sometimes books and other things are designed so that they sell one copy to a group like a school for use as a master and then the group is allowed to copy it as needed for its members as long as it is not being sold. There are also educational use laws dealing with copywrights which make things even harder to understand. What makes this so fuzzy is there are a lot of ins and outs about copyright laws and sometimes it depends upon the type of copywright and such as to how it may be used and copied.

 

[petryshyn]

Re: Copyright??

We've all crossed the line of copyrights at one time or another. One can be accused of many things less noble than helping out a struggling comrad.....