At 09:17 PM 12/19/01 -0800, Steve Laifman wrote:
>The Book of Norman is copywrite protected by Norman, the Rootes Factory
>Manual is not. We would not violate the copywrite law. The reason TBON
>costs so much is there was a limited printing run, and it has more
>demand than the limited supply.
Steve
I'm not so certain that the Rootes Factory Manual is not
copyright-protected. The revisions of the Copyright Law in the US over the
past two decades -- made to bring US law into conformity with those of the
European Community/European Union -- extended copyright on a
corporate-produced publication to 75 years after its appearance. Thus, the
Rootes manuals would be protected until 2035 or 2045 or whatever. And it
is the position of the US government that the passage of the new Act
restored lapsed copyrights, though I don't believe this has ever been
tested in court and might well not hold up -- but who wants to pay an
intellectual-properties attorney to find out?
On a variety of camera lists to which I subscribe, I have found that web
posters are MOST careful to obtain, say, the approval of the Zeiss
Foundation before posting manuals or brochures from Zeiss Ikon, even though
Zeiss Ikon peddled their last camera in 1973. Such approval is freely and
cheerfully given, apparently. (Leica is a whole different issue: they are
quite a bit more sticky about such approval, but generally do give it.)
Now, Peugeot or whoever owns these rights today probably cares not a whit
about your posting the Factory Manual to the Web, but it might not hurt to
ask.
Marc
msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315
Cha robh b`s fir gun ghr`s fir!
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