eBay users plagiarizing collectors' content...

[Paul Koning]

>>>>> "Antonio" == Antonio Carlini <a.carlini at ntlworld.com> writes:

 >> Randy: I know your manuals situation has been discussed here
 >> before.  It's noble of you to just appreciate the distribution.
 >> But you certainly deserve to be compensated for your work.  (Guess
 >> I wouldn't do so well in the open-source world!)

 Antonio> I'm just taking a wild stab in the dark here, but my guess
 Antonio> is that Randy (and Al, and almost anyone else doing any
 Antonio> scanning - me too for that matter) would have less than a
 Antonio> whole leg to stand on in court!

 Antonio> I don't claim any rights whatsoever to anything I've
 Antonio> scanned.  I've not heard anyone else here do so either. If
 Antonio> you are going to complain that someone is taking things
 Antonio> you've scanned and selling them, would it not be reasonable
 Antonio> to ask whether the original copyright holder (who presumably
 Antonio> had to _pay_ to get the manual written!) might not deserve
 Antonio> at least a chance to deny your request to distribute their
 Antonio> work?

 Antonio> Apologies to those who have scanned only after having sought
 Antonio> permission :-)

Actually, even then your comment probably holds.

Clearly a scanner can't hold copyright in the original content.  That
leaves compilation copyright.  But it's hard to see how that would
apply when the material published is simply a full page by page scan
of the original.

I have a scanned flight manual (US DOD publication, so no copyright on
the original -- so clearly there are no issues with selling the
scans).  The scanner put a copyright notice on the scanned file.  I
can't see how that is valid.  (Hm, that may explain why I saw a copy
of that CD sold by someone else.  Impolite, yes.  Illegal?  I wonder.)

Hm, I wonder if the same comment applies to reprints of old books --
from Lindsay Publications, Dover Press, etc., other than new
introductions and the like of course.

	      paul


       paul