e*ectronotes

[Sean Costello]

R.Fahl wrote:
> 
> Bernie's the same asshole who got upset when people were starting to post
> EN circuits on the web, none of which is copyrighted.    You try to get
> some good information out there and there's some old crusty  possessive PhD
> who won't let people have access to it.  He's given himself a bad name in
> the past by not sending his Electronotes out to people (people who've paid)
> and he's doing it again.

Hi all (& a special hi-de-ho to you, Romeo - how's Portland treating
you?),

I'm going to partly defend Bernie here.  It's true that he is often very
cranky, and slow sending stuff out.  Still, Electronotes, as far as I
can tell, was HIS creation.  Other people contributed valuable
information (I think Ian Fritz, creator of many cool circuits, is
actually on this list), but he authored the majority of the articles,
edited and printed the thing, and always gave credit where credit was
due.  For Bernie, the copying issue was not about copyright, it was
about plagarism.  He's an academic, and giving credit for other people's
work is a VERY big deal in academia.

Still, he shouldn't be selling the stuff if he doesn't follow through. 
Have you written a letter to him, Paul?

I've had good dealings with Bernie when I ordered stuff.  Still, it was
right around the time when the controversy happened - maybe he wanted to
make a good impression, and ship out his stuff to people on time, so as
to assert his rights to the material.  Which would be a good idea on his
part.  

None of the old Electronotes issues are copyrighted.  After a certain
date (around 1979, I believe), anything published in the US is
automatically copyrighted, whether it is declared or not - but a lot of
the really interesting Electronotes were published before then.  Bernie
even discusses the lack of copyrights in one of the old Electronotes. 
Unfortunately, the WWW wasn't part of many people's minds back then -
who would have thought that information could be distributed to millions
of people, at minimal cost, in a matter of seconds?

I bought the material from Bernie for a few reasons.  Partly out of
respect - it's HIS work, and he should get credit where credit is due. 
Quite frankly, though, I bought it because it seemed more convenient
than making several thousand copies down at Kinko's (which was an option
for me, but I am lazy :).  Bernie has to realize that the law is NOT on
his side on this one - if it isn't copyrighted, no one is going to take
their time to fight for his rights for it.  

I would hope that Bernie realizes that people today buy material from
him as a sign of respect for his work.  If he doesn't show respect back,
then people will get the information regardless of his efforts. There is
no legal controversy here, just an ethical one (once again, this is for
all of the work done before whatever the cutoff date is, that doesn't
display copyright - some Electronotes items were copyrighted, like the
Musical Engineer's Handbook).  Even ethical people get frustrated when
they try to do the right thing and it leads nowhere. 

Anyway, enough ranting.  I hope Bernie follows through.  If not, I'm
sure that Electronotes documents will start being passed around again,
via photocopies or electronically.

Later,

Sean Costello