Tio Pedro wrote:

They are on a DK server right now I'm hoping for the
best when the dust and tempers settle.

They won't be for long.

That server exists because of a "don't ask, don't tell" policy from
the owners of the copyrights of many of the manuals. Legally if they
can prove 10 copies of any one manual have been downloaded, they can
file suit under the Berne Convention, and have InterPol knocking at their
door demanding download records.

The whole process will cost the copyright owners less than $1000, and probably
put the site and similar ones out of business.

If they do secure the download logs, then they have four years from the
date they were first notified to sue them for damages.

If they decide to sue them or not, it does not place the manuals in
the public domain. Copyrights do not need to be reapplied for, nor enforced
to stay in effect. The requirement to renew them has long since been dropped.

At this point, no copyrighted US work will have its protection expire
for almost 20 years, so you can't easily wait them out.

If German (and now EU) law allows the copyrights to expire or fair use
as defined in the EU allows them to be downloaded, the copyright owners
could force them to not allow downloads of copyrighted US manuals to US
residents, which would basicly put them out of business.

IMHO the best thing the people who run the DK server can do is to remove
the Heath manuals and hope it ends there.

Geoff.
--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM