[Coco] Re: Hot Coco Post Partum

[farna at att.net]

I've had to deal with such issues before pertaining to old car documentation. Because of the age and low appeal of the material, IDG would have a hard time proving damages unless it's used in a way that could harm the company image. If the material is illegally copied and distributed at minimal costs -- basically just a bit for the time to scan, make discs, copy, and ship they can't prove that you're making money off their (abandoned) product. That an effort was made to work with IDG could actually benefit the defense, though refusal doesn't constitute a reason for infringement of rights (that would be a risky thing to bring up -- could back fire!). 

In my publishing, I've only had one instance where I got a "cease and desist" order/threat from a company. This is a tricky situation. I'm generally an honest person, but there are some instances where the intent of the law is just not being carried out, or it's being sorely abused to the detriment of someone, not really protecting anything. This is one of those cases. The material is obviously of no real commerical value to a large corporation, and would only benefit a handfull of people. I'd go ahead and copy the magazines on CD anyway, and offer copies to to the list. Since it would cost IDG more than they could recover, the most they would do is issue a "cease and desist" order along with a threat of a lawsuit. How "hard" a threat depends on the lawyer, but I wouldn't take it to seriously. A simply worded reply with an statement saying you'll comply, and maybe an apology, and request for how you could go about legally continuing would be an appropriate answer. Or, if you want to do this with some sense of legality, advertise electronic "backups" to anyone who can produce an original copy. Ask for the UPC code off an issue or something like that. If a couple codes got passed around, well, who knows how many copies of an issue are out there now? It's way to much trouble to make an individual CD for one copy, may as well send the one CD even though it has a year's worth -- you still have YOUR backup copy... 

In truth I don't think anyone at IDG would ever notice a thing, and the threat of any real legal action is so slim that it's hardly there at all. Not impossible, but someone at IDG would have to be really aggressive to go after a handfull of hobbyist reproducing something of little or no corporate value. There would be more negative impact for them than anything else, and I don't think they would be blind to that! Just my nickel's worth from past experience -- and a little common sense!

--
Frank Swygert
Publisher, "American Independent 
Magazine" (AIM)
For all AMC enthusiasts
http://farna.home.att.net/AIM.html
(free download available!)
			

 -------------- Original message ----------------------

> Message: 8
> Date: Mon, 01 Aug 2005 13:06:42 -0700
> From: "John R. Hogerhuis" <jhoger at pobox.com>
> Subject: Re: [Coco] [Color Computer] Hot Coco Post Partum
> To: ColorComputer at yahoogroups.com
> Message-ID: <1122926802.19387.232.camel at aragorn>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
> 
> So the only way to preserve/use Hot Coco articles is 
> 
> a) Tracking down and purchasing used copies (no benefit to IDG)
> b) Producing infringing copies (no benefit to IDG)
> c) Getting authorization to make new copies for free or with royalty to
> IDG 
> 
> To enforce b) IDG would have to track down only enough agreements to
> make it very expensive for the infringer, or to somehow show that
> copyright assignment was the general policy.
> 
> Unless they could show that copyright assignment was the general policy,
> c) will probably not happen because even if IDG wanted to, since it
> would be very expensive to track down all the original authors and
> advertisers and get copies of the original agreements or to get them to
> sign new ones. The problem is that the documents IDG had were lost or
> destroyed whether on purpose or on mistake somewhere along the line. But
> the loss of documentation does not mean the copyrights were never
> assigned, it is clear that in some cases they were.
> 
> So a) is the only clear option.
> 
> Hopefully this makes it clear to everyone how destructive the copyright
> system can be. Civilization is based on building upon the the past. To
> lock up the past in legal uncertainty like this is *wrong*, period.
> Orphan works/abandonware require special consideration, and hopefully
> Congress will fix it.
> 
> -- John.