FW: Will a real copyright lawyer stand up?

[Jim Berry]

Hello Heath fans,

I am interested in the manual status also.  I have made a few copies for
folks, received copies I needed from others etc.  I did not even know you
could actually buy manuals from Heath at all. I then found out the quality
was not very good though.  Anyhow, I received a note that was not posted to
the group.  This particular party did not want to post a message and become
part of the contrversy.  He did say it was OK for me to what ever I liked
with the message.  I decided to repost it so you folks could see this
persons opinion.  I felt it contained just too much info to not share.  You
will find my original message hanging on the bottom of all this.

73 Jim K7SLI

>
>
>
> Hi Jim,
>
> They actually might.  They're out there selling manuals as the "Only Legal
> Source" for Heath Manuals, so I wouldn't wave red flags.  They
> still reside in
> their building (a rebuilt [in '91] old K-Mart but actually pretty nice) in
> Benton Harbor, MI.  I'm not sending this to the whole list (as I have no
> interest in starting a new round and beginning the speculation).
> Scott Dunbar,
> Jim Laramy and I were the attorneys that covered Heath in the
> later Zenith days
> (in my case from 1986 to the "spin off" in 94).  I did the
> general corporate
> work and Scott did IP.  Bill Owen (the old General Counsel at Zenith Data
> Systems) and Scott (for a few more weeks) are still at
> NEC-Packard Bell (where
> Zenith Data Systems went).  Anyway, I know we reviewed the manual
> selling/copyright issue a least a few times during my tenure.
> One problem we
> saw was that some of the copyrights that expired (before one of
> the changes in
> the law) were never renewed (they really were lost).  There was no time or
> resources for those things in the late 80's and early 90's I
> guess.  When the
> law changed we didn't have to renew and those copyrights continue
> to this day.
> Anyway, there are some of those manuals that Heath lost the (c)
> for and we had a
> heck of a time figuring out what we had copyrights on and not.  I set up a
> couple of files on the outfits selling Heath manuals and we even
> ordered some
> (that we knew we had rights in) to go after them.  Actually the
> idea at that
> time was to give them a license and collect a per-copy royalty on
> what they were
> selling (Heath management said at the time they didn't really
> want to be in the
> old manual business).  About that time, we were called off and
> the sale of Heath
> took place.  That was the end of that (just a little history).  I
> believe those
> files probably went off too the new owners and  Fitch, Even (the
> Chicago IP firm
> that was handling Heath).  I'm not sure what the status is but I
> thought it was
> the Heath President at the time (Don Derocher or John Horton)
> that decided to
> get back into the manual selling business as the "Only Legal
> Source" for Heath
> manuals (not a totally true statement, but what the heck, I don't
> think the
> Manual Man or W7FG have any idea which manuals they can legally
> copy/sell and
> which one's they can't - I bet at this point, Heath doesn't know
> which manuals
> it still has rights in).  Anyway, just an FYI.  You can pass this
> information on
> as you see fit.  I just didn't want to start something new on the
> list (that
> could get out of hand, hi, hi).  73
>
I took the liberty of removing his name, but this fella is a lawyer for
Heath.
>
>
>
> Jim Berry <basalop at GTE.NET> on 04/20/99 10:43:24 PM
>
> Please respond to basalop at gte.net
>
> To:   HEATH at LISTSERV.TEMPE.GOV
> cc:    (Charles MacKinnon/MW/US/3Com)
> Subject:  Re: Will a real copyright lawyer stand up?
>
>
>
>
> Hello to anyone who happens to read this one,
>
> I see you folks hammering back and forth about making a copy of a manual
> being illegal etc etc.  So what if you dropped a note to Heath
> (or whatever
> they are called this month) and request to buy a manual.  Would you ever
> hear back from them, or would they think you were some kind of a
> nut?  What
> is their address and stuff like that.  Anyhow, I see lots of stuff on here
> about what could happen to someone who copies a manual.  I wonder if Heath
> even really cares.  Anyone out there actually know?  I bet
> anything, if you
> were to actually hear back from them, they would say to find
> manual, make a
> copy of it, since I bet they don't have a single one any more.  Comments?
>
> 73 Jim K7SLI
>

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