[sdiy] IP, copyright etc

[Barry Klein]

I still sell my book off my site - about 1 book every two months.
My dad is getting a book published at a cost of over 6 thousand dollars and
he has spent hours each day working with the publisher.  Not worth it in my
case.  So many circuits of this nature are already on the web though that
really it is the best source now.

Barry


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
[mailto:owner-synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl] On Behalf Of Tim Daugard
Sent: Thursday, October 13, 2005 10:07 AM
To: Fiercefish; synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
Subject: Re: [sdiy] IP, copyright etc

>Not to flog a dead horse but since I have been into DIY/Modding
(about 7 years) I have been looking >for certain well known
books, literature, tech notes etc which I have been made aware of
by >listmembers on AH, SDIY and other forums, groups and
individuals. I have found for sale exactly zero, >which is really
kind of sad.

Same here. I did find one book in a library 1300 miles away, that
I could borrow and read.

>Another particular thing I was after was made to be so hard to
obtain I did not pursue it, it was basically >snail mail payment,
overseas and only delivered by carrier pigeon every third Sunday
during the time a >particular comit passed the Earth (ok I'm
exxagerating but you get the point) Its pretty stupid too
>because in these days of instant payment and ebooks I'd glady
have paid a good price to have the >document emailed to me, as it
turns out the author lost a sale and I did not get the info I
wanted, who

I hope this wasn't me. There are a few problems with electronic
publishing. Even Stephen King had problems . . . I'm still trying
to get that book.

- To electronic publish:

=-  The author has to put the book in a format readable - this
means PDF. This entails either working with a word proccessor and
massaging the work to convince the word processor to create a
good PDF file.
- or - Paying About $1000 for a copy of Adobe Acrobat.

=-  The aurthor has to convince a service like Amazon to sell
it. - or - Create a publishing company so that he can take
Paypal. For me to sell in Florida, Paypal wants my Tax ID.

=- Figure out a way to lock the book, if he delivers it
directly. - and - I've found far more information on the web on
how to defeat the locks, then how to lock a PDF doc. without
Adobe.

Total cost: $2,000 to $3,000. Anyone want to buy 2 copies @$1,500
each?

> Maybe authors get so paranoid that if they make their work
available electronically it will make
> piracy easier? Who knows, but what I do know is piracy is still
rife anyway and a lot of
> legitimate customers who don't want to buy a pirate version
have to go without.

No, they just want a chance to make some money back. If there is
any chance of getting a publisher, the book can't be released.
Prior release makes a book inpossible to sell (as opposed to near
impossible.)

> Also I have seen many commercial modules that are based on
designs from "X" publication or "X"s
> design, are we to believe that in ALL cases permission was
given/asked for? Again not condoning IP
> theft but it exists.

If the circuit is not patentable, there is no IP theft. If an
article is printed, the article is IP but not the design. Now if
they lift the circuit board pattern fron the article and then
sell that, there might be issues.

> What with all these components becoming obsolete, RoHS, the
prevailence of digital synthesis,
> kids thinking the only way to do electronic music is with a
computer, authors not fulfilling markets,
> and the difficulty of getting parts is Synth Diy to go the way
of the dodo?

No, just like ham radio, there will always be some geezers and a
very few kids. The geezers get replaced by kids who stuble across
the hobbies on there way to geezerhood.

My question is who is going to collect stamps, when you can't get
them off the envelopes.

Tim Daugard
AG4GZ 30.4078N 86.6227W Alt: 12 feet above MSL
http://home.sprintmail.com/~daugard/synth.htm