[Coco] RAINBOW scans

[Andrew]

> Message: 7
> Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:04:23 -0400
> From: Chuck Youse <cyouse at serialtechnologies.com>
> Subject: Re: [Coco] Coco Digest, Vol 62, Issue 8
> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Message-ID: <1218603864.28298.23.camel at dev>
> Content-Type: text/plain
> 
> As previously stated, these are scans of my personal collection of
> Rainbow magazines.  Per fair use, I am allowed to reproduce these for my
> own personal archives.

Yes.

> As explicitly stated, these electronic copies are also available to
> those who have license to read them; in general, those who have
> purchased copies of the magazine are ALSO, by fair use, allowed to use

I would talk to a lawyer about that - this is a murky area you are 
wading into.

> these electronic copies.  Those who violate copyright law by accessing
> the electronic copies are at their own risk.  It is not my
> responsibility to police them.

As far as I know, yes, you can make a personal copy of the magazine, if 
you own it. You may not, however, AFAIK, distribute that copy yourself 
without permission of the copyright holder (which, in this case, is 
still Lonnie's estate). Others, if they own the magazine, can make their 
own copies, but once again, I don't believe that they can distribute 
those copies in any manner.

You are distributing the copies by a) announcing you have made the 
copies, and b) directing people to a URL to distribute them.

The only way you could possibly justify this is if you had some manner 
of verifying that the downloads were only going to actual magazine 
owners (ie, have the owner take a picture and email it to you, you send 
a password for the URL back). It still isn't something that I think has 
been tested in court. I wouldn't want to be that test case.

I also don't want to see the effort which has already been put in to the 
scanning under license from Falsoft and Lonnie to go to waste. The scans 
that were to be offerred were professionally done, with full text 
searches and everything. I, for one, would have been first in line to 
buy a copy, no matter what the cost. I am sure others here would, too.

I can't be the only one here who feels this way, can I?

-- Andrew L. Ayers, Glendale, Arizona