[TowerTalk] Vintage Rhombic Treatises

[Jim Lux]

At 09:28 PM 2/27/2007, Pat Barthelow wrote:

>Does anyone know how long a copyright  holds for an antenna book?  I
>recovered from storage two beautifully written books on Rhombic Antennas.
>that are probably classics.  One, from Collins Radio, about Rhombic design,
>with a lot of graphical design aids, from about 1955, and another by ATT,
>very old, written during the Heyday of Rhombics used to hop the pond on the
>east coast.  They are so well written, and illustrated, I would be tempted
>to republish  them, if there is a want for them, and if it was legal. Both
>copyrights as printed in the books are more than 50 years old.

Contact the copyright holder and ask.  Both companies are in 
business.  In general, the Bono Copyright Act means that anything 
published after 1927(?)(e.g. Mickey Mouse) is still in 
copyright.  Over the years, the length of copyright protection has 
steadily increased, largely at the request of companies like Disney, 
so they can keep their stuff copyrighted.

There is an exception for books that are out of print and/or rare and 
hard to obtain, but it applies only to libraries making a single copy 
of a book in their collection for a specified set of uses for a 
single client. (They CAN make multiple copies, just not at the same time, etc.)

You can't just whip on down to Kinkos or your copier and go to town.

There is also a thing where if you meet a whole raft of conditions, 
you can't be sued for damages, even if you do copy it.  But there's a 
fair amount of hassle with this one.

If you are interested in republishing them, with multiple copies.. 
Talk to Dover Press.. they make a specialty of reprinting out of 
print technical things that the original publisher has no interest in 
dealing with, and they will take care of assignments of copyright, 
etc. Dover publishes a lot of things that used to be expensive 
textbooks. (Martin Uman's book, "Lightning" is a good example, so is 
Ronald Standler's book on protecting from electrical transients)

Lindsay Books is another possibility, but I think they deal more in 
explicitly out of copyright works.


>73, DX, de Pat AA6EG aa6eg at hotmail.com;
>Skype: Sparky599
>Moon or Bust!--Jamesburg Gang Rides Again!
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