On Mon, 6 Jan 2003, Mark Roberts wrote: > I won't charge money for anything for which I am not the copyright owner, > but that also means I probably don't have grounds to complain to eBay about > it. I *am* going to keep track of the auction and notify bidders where they > can get the files for free ;-)
I'm not sure which manuals you're talking about, but there's a chance that you could be the copyright holder. This issue came up on the Spotmatic list, where a list member was selling .pdf manuals that he scanned himself. His response was that it was not illegal to do that, and I quote from his reply to me: "Excuse me, I stand corrected. Chris, you are correct: there is mention of a 70-year term in Copyright law. But it applieds to works created after January 1, 1978. Here is the relevant section of copyright law as pertains to the manuals in question: � 304..Duration of copyright:Subsisting copyrights 6 (a)COPYRIGHTS IN THEIR FIRST TERM ON JANUARY 1,1978.^� (1)(A)Any copyright,in the first term of which is subsisting on January 1, 1978,shall endure for 28 years from the date it was originally secured." So if you have manuals published before 1978 (K-series, for example), you seem to be perfectly within your rights to sell reproductions of them. After 1978, of course, you run into legal problems. chris
