yeees, that true in a way. but how you cope with something like the fact
that Heath is DEAD?
Who is the beneficiary of the intellectual knowledge of a defunct company?
Usually, a company is required by law to provide service and spares for its
products for a certain length of time, after having sold the product. if it
falls, i don't see a reason why the last resource remaining to keep the
product alive shouldn't pass in the public domain. It seems to me that it
should be part of the company's responsibility- well, it probably doesn't
exactly fit to Heath, since at the time electronic copies weren't available-
but but selling a TS-140 manual for 40$ IS forcing many of us to resort to
illegal copies!
Alex 4Z5KS
On Thu, May 20, 2010 at 10:40 PM, Glen Zook <gzook@yahoo.com> wrote:
> There are no "eternal" copyrights. Basically, under the Copyright Law of
> the United States of America an individual copyright is for the life of the
> author plus 70 years. For works "created for hire" (and the Heath manuals
> fit into this category) the length of the copyright is 95 years. There are
> other lengths of copyrights but those two are the most prevalent.
>
> Now trademarks are a "horse of a different color". If a trademark is
> defended and maintained then it will be in effect so long as the company
> exists. But, for copyrights, there is definitely a length of time before
> the document (etc.) passes into public domain.
>
> The Berne Convention has been in effect since 1886 and the world has
> survived without any major problems. Many of the people who object to
> copyright laws want to profit from the works of others without having to pay
> for the material. Although an individual may not think that they are
> profiting by ignoring copyright law, every single person who ignores the
> copyright law contributes to the loss of income rightfully due the holder of
> the copyright. It is up to the holder of the copyright to decide if they
> want to profit from the copyright or if they basically want to allow free
> use of the material and/or put it in public domain.
>
> Glen, K9STH
>
> Website: http://k9sth.com
>
>
> --- On Thu, 5/20/10, Jeff Carter <amps@hidden-valley.com> wrote:
>
> One of the things that really bothers me about current day America is how
> much we talk about freedom and then think talking about it is equivalent to
> actually having it.
>
> If freedom means being free from arbitrary government interference and free
> from protection/promotion of corporate interest over individual liberty,
> Americans are not free. I have had this pointed out to me by Russian hams,
> who love to tell Americans that they should come to Russia so they could be
> free.
>
> Lest any of you scoff, here is what freedom looks like in Russia:
>
> http://www.cqham.ru/sch_eng.html
>
> Nothing there is of any use to you unless you already own the hardware.
> >From my perspective, once you own the hardware, and have paid for it, it
> should be yours to do with as you please. If you want to mod it, or dunk it
> into the nearest toilet, you should have the freedom to do so. As far as I
> can determine, just myself and the Russians believe this nowadays, or at
> least we're the only ones saying it out loud.
>
> I am not a believer in eternal copyrights. I'm thinking that the lifetime
> of the author is plenty, and 25 years for a corporation is plenty. The
> direction that "Intellectual Property" law is headed into will eventually
> mean that all advances made by the human race will belong to some
> corporation in perpetuity, which in turn will generate engineering lockdown
> in the West outside of corporate R&D and signed NDAs.
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Amps mailing list
> Amps@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/amps
>
--
Saandy
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