Heath Co./Heath manuals

[Paul K. Dean]

Hi, gang!

Since Heath has copyrighted their manuals, it is **technically** illegal to
copy them.  However, and I know this will honk off a couple of folks on
this list, in order to preserve a copyright, one MUST take positive action
to enforce it.  In my opinion, Heath has not done so.  A small
advertisement in a single, limited circulation magazine really doesn't
constitute a positive enforcement action.  Now, if they were to sue W7FG
and HI Manuals, I'd call that a positive enforcement action.

As far as I can tell, they, among others, are openly violating Heath's
copyright without repercussion.  I've never seen a "reprinted with
permission" notice on any of their products.  If I'm wrong on that, I will
stand corrected, but normally, a copyright holder giving permission to copy
requires such a statement.  I've reused ARRL materials with permission
before and they are very specific as to the language that must be used!

Anyway, just my 2 cents...........

At 03:00 PM 7/24/98 -0400, R. L. Blaney wrote:
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Joe Filice <jpf at PHOTON.COM>
>To: HEATH at LISTSERV.TEMPE.GOV <HEATH at LISTSERV.TEMPE.GOV>
>Date: Friday, July 24, 1998 2:19 AM
>Subject: Heath Co./Heath manuals
>
>
>>Hello to all,
>>
>>     Out of idle curiosity (not to be confused with idleness),
>>I have some questions about the Heath Company and its current
>>policy toward its old kit manuals.
>
>
>Hi Heath(ens)
>Joe brings up a very good question.  I too feel I was ripped off by the
>quality of the product the present management of Heath provides.  I, too,
>went elsewhere, got much better quality and more accurate copies, for much
>cheaper price.  I know nothing regarding the legal aspect of this operation,
>but these other sources are providing a very valuable service to the present
>owners of the Heathkit products of the former Heath Company, (as opposed to
>the present corporate structure of Heath.)  I am also wondering the same
>about the reproduction manuals for other marques, such as Drake, EF Johnson,
>(both still in business), Hallicrafters, etc.  Maybe somewhere out here in
>the World Wide Wasteland, on these lists, there may be an attorney who may
>shed some light.  So, waiting with baited breath,-----
>73 es gud hamming, de
>Dick, WB8MHE
>wb8mhe at bright.net
>
>
>
>  I'm guessing some insight
>>into this may exist in this varied and scholarly group.
>>     I became interested in amateur radio a few years back
>>via an interest in vintage electronics.  I picked up a DX-60
>>without really knowing much about it.  The only source for a
>>manual I could think of was the Heath Company.  I didn't even
>>know if they still existed.  (I built a few of their audio kits
>>in the seventies, but wasn't interested in amateur radio then.)
>>Via directory assistance I found there was still a number for
>>them and ended up ordering a photocopy of the DX-60 manual.
>>The price seemed pretty steep, I think it came to a little
>>over $30 with the postage (more than I had paid for the hardware!)
>>but at least it came complete and legible.  Not long after, I
>>acquired an Apache and again got a manual photocopy from Heath.
>>This one was missing random pages, though the test procedures were
>>complete.  The third and last manual I ever got from them was for
>>an SB-301.  This one was sort of a mess, though the alignment
>>and test instructions were complete.  There were no assembly
>>instructions and the schematic included sections from the
>>SB-300 (which I suppose isn't all that different).  Also there
>>were pages from a completely different manual mixed in--believe
>>it or not from some kind of air purifier!  This would have been
>>fine if another ham had made the copy for me for a few bucks, but to
>>charge 30 bucks for something so poor seemed ridiculous.  By then
>>I realized there were other sources for the manuals, providing a
>>much nicer product (including binding) and selling them, generally
>>speaking, for less.  I vowed to never deal with Heath again.
>>     Recently I noticed their ad in Amateur Radio Trader.  I'm
>>wondering if, out of the growing realization that there are people
>>out there who care about their old products, they aren't doing a
>>better job of it today.  (I would guess that the only motivation
>>for producing better copies of their old manuals would be pride,
>>because the money to be made from them must be in the noise.)
>>The ad says they (Heath) are "the only authorized source for
>>copyrighted manuals."  Is that true?  Or is, say, a DX-100 manual
>>in the public domain today?  Is it, strictly speaking, illegal for
>>someone to profit from the sale of copies of their old manuals?
>>Personally, I don't look upon it as immoral.
>>     Anyway, these questions have been rattling around in my head
>>for a while, but I never had anyone to ask before.  If the subject
>>has already been run into the ground, then please just point me
>>in the vicinity of the relevant archive file.  Thanks.
>>
>>Joe Filice, KQ6GL
>>jpf at photon.com
>>
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