Greetings,
First, much thanks to the members that have offered to initiate a
documentation exchange. There may be some problems with this however. When
the Neotek list was in its first few years of existence, we started to do
this; in fact it was one of the primary reasons we started the list in the
first place.
The problem surfaced when I received an email from Mike Stoica, who is
the current owner of the Neotek name and intellectual property (which
includes all the schematics, etc.). At that time, he had recently purchased
the rights from Matin Sound (the previous owner) and felt (correctly so)
that he alone, had sole rights to control and distribute (read as "sell")
the prints. He insisted that we remove all of them from our server, which
we did.
I explained that we, as a group of Neotek owners and technicians were in
need of this documentation to maintain our and our clients consoles.
Additionaly, and most importantly I stated that there was ZERO financial
interest in this for any of us. Analog Bros started and solely supported
the list for the first 10 or so years, at which point Catapult Web
partnered with us to host it at their cost. Pretty much regardless of what
I had to say, he was adamant that we cease the hosting of his documents. I
gave him my word that we would not engage any further in any act that could
be construed as an affront to his property. I had also requested he join
the list, but it appears he has not. He stated that he would provide
documentation, service, parts and assistance for the older consoles to
those in need (at a cost, but that's only fair).
The story is actually longer and more complex that this, but my brief
explanation should get everyone up to speed.
Since that point, I've replied to all inquiries for documentation that
they contact him directly. Recently though, he has been unable to provide
certain schematic sets to some members that have requested them. So, this
brings up a question as to his current degree of interest in the older
consoles. To the best of my knowledge, any remaining parts inventory he had
is pretty well depleted, no early "Series" console information has appeared
on his web site and he no longer has all the documents. None of this
changes the fact that he is the valid owner.
I would be willing to approach him to ask if he was still against our
providing a documentation reservoir. Depending on his response, this could
be handled in a few ways. If he was against it, Analog Bros would NOT be
willing to be involved in regard to actually hosting the files. We can't
afford to be taken to court over this. Catapult Web would have to make
their own decision, but I'd guess (not to be presumptive) they feel the
same way. However, each of you as individuals, can of course do whatever
you feel is appropriate. I would suggest in the strongest terms that any
files would NOT be put into public domain; ie on the open Internet. That
was a problem with our early situation, in that anyone, anywhere could have
access. I had offered to password protect the files, but Mike was still
against that.
So, please think about this before putting yourself or business at any
potential risk. If there is any consensus, I'd be glad to get in contact
with Mike to feel out his current position.
Regards, Jim
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Thanks.
