[Coco] RAINBOW scans

[Frank Swygert]

I looked at the scans, Chuck. They may not be the highest quality, as 
someone pointed out, but they are there and very readable! That's really 
all that matters at this point. I too think it's just something that 
will disappear with time. This needs to be done even if the copies only 
go to a few die-hard coco enthusiasts. At least there will be some 
electronic copies floating around to be found later.

You are wrong about the copyright not being your responsibility though. 
The magazines are up on a publicly accessible site where anyone who 
knows the address can view and/or make copies. That's not "fair use". If 
the site were password restricted you'd probably get away with it. Low 
risk, I agree, but technically you can be held liable.

That said, a copyright is only as good as the enforcement. With Lonnie 
gone I don't think anyone is interested in copyright protection of the 
Rainbow magazine. Lonnie's only concern was that he could be held liable 
for copyright violation if he just gave permission to let the magazines 
be freely distributed because of the contract terms with the various 
writers, or if the programs were used in some way that violated the 
contract. I really think that was bogus, he just didn't want his "baby" 
to be discredited in any way. I talked to him about taking the Rainbow 
over years ago, right before publication ceased, and he just wasn't 
interested. He basically said if it had to die it would be by his hand 
while it was still a reputable magazine. He didn't want someone to take 
it over and "run it down" before dieing a slow death. I understood and 
respected that, but it could have survived with a low overhead "hobby" 
publisher for a lot longer, though it would have regressed to more like 
it started. Luckily technology had improved to the point it still would 
have been better than mimeographed sheets! We discussed just buying the 
mailing list, but he wanted commercial rates for that. In the end I just 
took out an ad for another CoCo support magazine ("the world of 68' 
micros" -- so it could support 68K OS-9 as well as DECB and 6809 OS-9) 
in the last issue... I think he gave me a small discount, don't recall now.

In order to collect damages from a copyright infringement the 
complainant has to prove damages. If sales of back issues of Rainbow are 
hurt by the scanning, or the people scanning and selling the DVDs are 
making a good bit of money over and above a copy/shipping/handling fee, 
then there is grounds for a damages lawsuit. Otherwise, about all a 
copyright holder can do is ask you to stop. I'm sure there are steps 
they can take if you don't, but in every instance of something obsolete 
being copied that I've ever heard of the "cease and desist" order is the 
first step, and unless a monetary loss can be proven, it usually stops 
there. I've seen this happen several times with old automotive 
documentation, but in general the auto and parts makers don't care 
because there's no money in it for them. They occasionally sell the 
rights to old manual to a third party, who then enforces ownership of 
the copyright.

If the violations continue there are fines that can be levied in court, 
but since the complainer doesn't get that money, it rarely goes that 
far. But it could. The violation is at your own risk, but the risk is 
low. Think of it like speeding -- occasionally someone gets caught and 
fined, but compared to the number of people who go over the speed limit 
(or the times you speed without getting caught), the odds are with the 
speeder.

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