From Bernie Hutchins -> Schematics - Again

[Sean Costello]

Concerning copyrights on Electronotes material:

I did some browsing on the web, and found some informative material at
gopher://marvel.loc.gov:70/00/.ftppub/copyright/circs/circ01.  Here's some
of the relevant information:

>Copyright is secured automatically when the work is created,
>and a work is "created" when it is fixed in a copy or phonorecord
>for the first time.  "Copies" are material objects from which a
>work can be read or visually perceived either directly or with the
>aid of a machine or device, such as books, manuscripts, sheet
>music, film, videotape, or microfilm.

This also applies to web documents, text files, etc.

However:

>NOTE: Before 1978, statutory copyright was generally secured by 
>the act of publication with notice of copyright, assuming 
>compliance with all other relevant statutory conditions.  Works in 
>the public domain on January 1, 1978 ( for example, works published
>without satisfying all conditions for securing statutory copyright
>under the Copyright Act of 1909) remain in the public domain under
>the current act.

And:

>For works first published on and after March 1, 1989, use of the
>copyright notice is optional, though highly recommended. Before
>March 1, 1989, the use of the notice was mandatory on all published
>works, and any work first published before that date must bear a
>notice or risk loss of copyright protection.

I'm not a lawyer, but it seems that, IF the Electronotes issues in question
do not bear a copyright notice, then they are not copyrighted. I am taking
other people's word about the lack of copyright notices on the Electronotes
publications.  My copy of the PCC has no copyright notice on it; however,
the copy of the Musical Engineer's Handbook that I have checked out from the
library DOES have a notice of copyright ("Copyright 1975 by ELECTRONOTES and
Bernard A. Hutchins, Jr.").  

Mind you, there is a big difference between a legal ability to perform an
action, and the moral ramifications of that action.  Even if it turns out
that it is legal to copy much of the Electronotes information, posting it
without proper acknowledgment of source would have to be classified as
plagarism (this is not meant as a slam against Ric; I have been downloading
stuff off of his site for quite some time, and am grateful for the
information he has provided).  At the least, future postings of Electronotes
material should include proper references (i.e. image taken from author,
publication, date, volume #, page #s, etc.).

Personally, I would hope that these issues can be settled with Mr. Hutchins.
I would hate to see the driving force behind Electronotes become alienated
from the majority of the people out there that are concerned with keeping
his work alive.  (Let's face it - the "small circle of internet cronies"
Bernie refers to are probably the only people that give a flying fuck about
Electronotes and making analog synths in the first place.)  

Copyright or no, I would gladly pay the $265 for the complete Electronotes
set, if I had any confidence that I would receive them within a few months
(I hate making photocopies of all of this stuff; buying the Electronotes
stuff would save me time and effort, as well as giving money to where credit
is due).  However, I have heard too many stories (first hand) about Bernie's
lack of interest in following through on orders.  No one should be expected
to wait four or more months to have their order processed, without any
letter of explanation or phone call.  (If there are any positive stories
about Bernie following through on orders, please let me know.)

Later,

Sean Costello

P.S.  Anybody know if the Moog schematics are copyrighted?  ARP?  How about
posting U.S. Patents?