[SCC_Active_Members] One thoughtful input on the "Orphan Works" issue

[Dave Redell]

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>Date:         Tue, 1 Mar 2005 21:17:34 -0600
>Reply-To: "Douglas W. Jones" <jones at CS.UIOWA.EDU>
>Sender: ACM US Public Policy Committee Information 
><USACM-INFO at LISTSERV.ACM.ORG>
>From: "Douglas W. Jones" <jones at CS.UIOWA.EDU>
>Subject: Re: ALA on "Orphan Works" and Copyrights
>Comments: To: Lauren Weinstein <lauren at VORTEX.COM>
>To: USACM-INFO at LISTSERV.ACM.ORG
>
>I have sent the following note in reply to the Orphan Works request.  I
>urge others to follow up as well.  I believe that the problem is serious.
>
>  - - -  begin quote - - -
>
>
>To: Jule L. Sigall
>Associate Register for Policy and International Affairs
>
>I am writing in response to your request for public comment on the
>issues raised by copyrighted works whose owners are difficult or
>impossible to locate.  I should note that my institutional affiliation
>listed below is for identification purposes only; I am not writing as
>a representative of the University of Iowa.
>
>In the field of computing, many corporate authors that were once very
>important sources of innovation no longer exist.  While the computers
>of the 1960s were physically large and slow, by todays standards, many
>of them contained innovations that were very important.  I have worked
>to preserve some of the documentation from these early machines, and
>in doing so, I have had significant difficulty obtaining copyright
>clearnace.
>
>Here is a specific example.  The Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-8
>computer, introduced in 1965, was the first computer to be sold for
>under $20,000, and later models of this machine were the first computers
>ever to be sold on a retail cash-and-carry basis.  In working to preserve
>documentation from this machine, I wanted permission to reprint technical
>documentation.
>
>This was at a time when Digital Equipment Corporation still existed, but
>when the PDP-8 computer had long been discontinued.  It took me over a
>year to track down a person who could give me the necessary permission.
>Since then, the company was acquired by Compaq, and Compaq then merged
>with Hewlett Packard.  Today, I have no idea where I would even begin my
>search for permission to make such copies.
>
>The situation with other vendors is even more difficult.  At least, we
>can trace the chain of corporate acquisition of the remains of Digital
>Equipment Corporation.  The problem is far more difficult with some of
>the hot little companies that lived shorter lives and disappeared far more
>completely.
>
>I strongly believe that copyright law must be modified to free up the
>rights on documentation for discontinued products.  My strong suspicion
>is that, whether such products are old cars, old computers, or old washing
>machines, once the vendor discontinues support for the product, the
>copyright restrictions on the associated documentation supporting that
>product should be loosened.
>
>Many of the documents that interest me would be classified as ephemera
>by librarians, such things as sales and marketing flyers, owner's manuals, 
>maintenance manuals, and instructional materials.  These can be key tools
>for understanding the emergence, spread and eventual decline in a product,
>so they have great value to historians of technology, but the preservation
>of these documents, as they age, will eventually require copying that is
>of questionable legality under current law.  Furthermore, to make these
>documents available to scholars at large, they should be scanned and put
>on the web, but again, current law makes this difficult.
>
>                 Douglas W. Jones
>                 Associate Professor of Computer Science
>                 MacLean Hall
>                 University of Iowa
>                 Iowa City, IA  52242
>
>                 (319)335-0740
>                 jones at cs.uiowa.edu