Bernie Hutchins, Electronotes, Copyrights

[Sean Costello]

Romeo Fahl wrote:

> I have some schematics on my webserver, in a directory that I've never
> included on any webpage, some of which are from Electronotes.  I have not
> found any copyright notices in Electronotes, save for the Musical Engineer's
> Handbook.  This morning I received a message from Bernard Hutchins which
> I've included below.  Do I, indeed have to remove the images from my site?

Hey Romeo:

Depends on when the images are from, and where you obtained them from. 
Most of the Electronotes newsletters had no copyright on them. 
Automatic copyrighting of printed material started to take place in 1979
or so; before then, if it didn't have a copyright notice, it wasn't
copyrighted.  Now, some of the Electronotes stuff does have explicit
copyrights - the Musical Engineer's Handbook and the Preferred Circuit
Collection are two that come to mind.  However, the vast majority of the
newsletters do not have copyright markings on them, and are thus NOT
COPYRIGHTED.  Bernie Hutchins himself addresses this in Electronotes #95
(November 1978), p. 20:

[begin quote]

Q: I see that most of your material is not copyrighted.  Why is this?

A: Do you see our material being copied _any_more_than_ the material of
others who do have a copyright?  Did you ever see anyone look for a
copyright notice before making a copy? Most people assume that it is
there, and yet it makes absolutely no difference to them as to whether
or not they make a copy, or two or there [sic], etc. So, you see,
nothing would be changed if we had the copyright notice there.  That's
why it's not there.  There is no way to protect printed material as long
as we are going to also have copy machines available. In the same way
that it does not matter to those who do not ask permission to copy, it
does not seem to matter whether the copyright notices is there or not to
those who do ask permission.  We have a good number of requests to use
our material, and are always happy to reply in the affirmative to those
with the courtesy to ask.

[end quote]

It is obvious from this that the majority of information, drawings, etc.
in Electronotes are therefore NOT under copyright.  As far as ownership
of the circuits themselves, Bernie Hutchins explains in the next
paragraph:

[begin quote]

Q: Do you patent your circuits, or are they covered by any sort of
protection?

A: We have no patents or any legal claim on any of our circuits.  They
are for the individual use and edification of our readers.  The only
claim we have would be the usual practices of being given credit for
ideas that our readers may want to pass on further.  We would hate to
see one of our circuits published elsewhere without being given credit
as the source.  This is just a matter of common courtesy and fair play.

[end quote]

I hope this information is of assistance.

Sean Costello (who obtained the above information from a complete set of
Electronotes purchased from Bernie Hutchins)