Heathkit manuals and copyright

<< < (3/4) > >>

WQ9E:
The Manual man (Pete) and Vintage manuals (former W7FG site) still list Heath manual reproductions for sale so if I acquire a piece of Heath gear and need a manual it will certainly be from one of those two vendors.

K5UJ:
Same here.  I have ordered some large manuals before from W7FG, Kenwood service manuals which were pretty big, and the quality was good for circuit troubleshooting.   The big foldouts were there too and each was comb bound with covers.   I don't mind paying for that.


Quote from: WQ9E on March 03, 2010, 11:24:27 AM

The Manual man (Pete) and Vintage manuals (former W7FG site) still list Heath manual reproductions for sale so if I acquire a piece of Heath gear and need a manual it will certainly be from one of those two vendors.

W1RKW:
Here's the purchase agreement.  There's nothing in it to suggest that he has copyrights.
http://www.tech-systems-labs.com/pdf-files/Agreement.pdf

From W3DBJ's website.

Heathkit and Manuals
A company called DataPro, has purchased the RIGHT to print and sell Heathkit legacy manuals. What does this mean for the community? Sadly, it doesn't bode well for us Hams, or the owners of DataPro either.

Don Patterson, the owner of DataPro, has been sending letters to anyone hosting manuals, such as the Boatanchor Manual Archive, BAMA, asking that they take them down, since he is now the owner of Heathkit's intellectual property. However, this is not the case, as Heathkit have not transferred one single solitary copyright to DataPro or Don. The Library of Congress and Copyright Office still show Heathkit as holding the rights for all the publications that have a valid copyright (those published since 1964).

It's important to note that DataPro haven't sent "Cease and Desist" letters, or obtained any Cease and Desist Order against any party, they are simply claiming in a letter that they now own the copyrights.

Two things: Would Heathkit, or anyone else, sell the copyright to their entire catalog for $5,000? And, if DataPro had any legal grounds, why did they not follow through legally, and send a formal Cease and Desist to BAMA?

Don't believe the hype, readers. Don owns nothing but a license to copy on behalf of Heathkit. Nothing more, nothing less. If he thought he was getting the copyrights, he bought a pig in a poke and got nothing but an empty sack.
Posted by W3DBJ at 1:15 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, November 25, 2008


There's more if one Googles keywords: Heathkit Datapro Copyright

Jim, W5JO:
Your are correct Robert.   What that guy has would not stand up in court.  What happened was after Daystrom bought Heath they moved everything and left the file cabinets with manuals in them sitting.  2 people made off with those cabinets.  I don't know if DataPro was one of them or not.  I do know that one woman and a man made a run at Gary about selling copies. 

Phil those manuals were probably the best in the industry.  After creating a kit and writing the manual they would build it like a ham to see if everything went well.  If it didn't they revised the manual.  So probably every manual kept by Heath would have notes and check marks in them.

The sad thing about BAMA is it is a free service and Ken doesn't want to wind up in court over something like this so he took them down rather than risk the possiblity and expense.  Like Rodger says, buy from Vintage Manuals or Pete if you must buy.  Also, there is nothing to prevent you from making a copy to give to your friends either on paper or electronic.  It is best you do it yourself because any Kinkos or other copy service will refuse if it has a copyright date.  They don't know the specifics of the law and won't run the risk.  If you do, you short Pete or Vintage Manuals

KA2QFX:
From what I read: "...all of the Seller's right, title and interest in and to all of the assets and the business owned by the Seller, related to the Seller's product line known as Heathkit's Legacy Manual Duplication and Distribution."

"all rights, title and interest" seems pretty clear to me. Why would you assume these "rights" to be exclusive of any copyright? And even if the copyright were still held by Heathkit, it's pretty clear that Heathkit has the authority to confer upon DataPro the SOLE right to copy and distribute regardless of which actually holds the copyright.

Understand I'm not defending the guy. I think the whole thing stinks. But we all have rights, including the right to be an a*^($%e.

Mark

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page