[Coco] [Color Computer] Holy Mods Batman!

[John R. Hogerhuis]

On Wed, 2005-04-13 at 17:18 -0400, Arthur Flexser wrote:

> Levinthal's 6809 book?  I'd imagine the publisher might object, unless you've
> obtained permission to post copyrighted material.
> 

Well in general the best thing is to try to get hold of the copyright
holder (which may or may not be the publisher) and attempt to get the
book released under a open content license (like Creative Commons).

That's what Leo Brodie permitted me to do with Thinking Forth. It was
re-typeset, and it's available print-on-demand or as a free PDF
download, or as LaTeX source. This book will probably never be out of
print or unavailable again.

But for the unspecified book in question, if it's truly an orphaned work
(almost certainly not in print anymore), copyright infringement becomes
a calculated legal risk for each individual engaged in the practice.
Given the current legal environement, one can either let these orphaned
works die or we can ensure their preservation until such time as the
broken copyright system is fixed.

Certainly letting old works die is not in the spirit of the founders who
gave Congress the power to create the copyright system. So if it is
truly orphaned it is not really a ethical or moral issue. Just an issue
of legal risk.

-- John.