"Geoffrey S. Mendelson" wrote in message 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.
Geoff.
--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM

Well, you are welcome to your opinion, but the copyrights
prior to a certain date in the 60s HAD to be renewed to be
still in effect. The copyright owner has admitted this, and
he has stated that a few manuals are no longer protected.

I have no bone to pick in this beef, since I usually buy the
manuals for any equipment that I own. This has all been
hashed out in the Heathkit forum on the Yahoo! users's
group (public access for reading postings) between
the users and the new copyright owner.