[Coco] RAINBOW scans

[Lothan]

> 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.

Rainbow had "first publication" rights with some of the authors, which means 
Rainbow is legally allowed to publish the first copy of the article but all 
further rights remain with the author. The agreement with Lonnie effectively 
keeps Lonnie in control of the digital copies so he continues to have "first 
publication" rights. I'm definitely not a copyright lawyer, but I don't 
think these "first publication" rights can be transferred since Lonnie has 
no authority over these rights. So, yes I believe you are mostly correct 
when you say Lonnie could be held liable if he allowed anyone to access 
digital copies of the magazine and anyone providing access to digital copies 
can also be held liable.

I don't know if anyone would dispute copyright given Rainbow hasn't been 
published for so long. I certainly don't have any qualms with any of the 
articles I wrote, but all of my rights are assigned to Rainbow anyway so I 
have no legal bearing in the matter. Unfortunately, I have no idea whether 
the death of Lonnie has any impact on the digitization and distribution 
agreement so I won't say anything regarding this  lest I stick my foot 
firmly in my mouth.