Quote:
Originally Posted by old_tv_nut
What RCA/Thomson did you contact?
1) I was under the impression that RCA only exists as a product brand for foreign-made miscellany; they certainly do not make these CRTs any more.
2) This seems to be an abominable lawyers' over-reaction to fair use of historical material for educational purposes. You should have asked if they could supply a copy for a price - I'd bet they cannot.
3) As I do for everything I post, I will remove it if requested by the copyright holder, but in this case, again, I would argue that it comes under fair use.
|
My 82/83 CRT guide has no copyright clause, or symbol on it, just like yours.
I wrote to the email address
legal@thomson.com, and got a reply to send a written request to a lawyer at a firm in New York. I sent a two page letter, and about a month later, the law firm answered in a 4-page letter sent via Fedex. They had a photocopy (more like a microfiche print copy) of the front cover of the CRT guide attached to the letter. On this was a white label, about 3"x5" with a whole bunch of info - mostly file names and creation or edit dates. The letter basically stated while I could use it for my use, and any duplication permission was denied. They stated the copyright was based on derivative work, and listed the RCA tube manual, a dozen or so RCA CRT engineering data sheets, and the copyright filing date for each. I'll never forget the closing statement (copied from an archived email I sent) - "Mr Clark, please forgo this folly and understand we have over 100 years experience in copyright infringement litigation. Our team exists first and foremost to protect the rightful property of Thomson and it's subsidiary companies. Any appearance of this publication (booklet) in the public domain, in any form other than original print, and we will be forced to unleash the full letter of the law in seeking damages, criminal reclaim, and expedient seizure of any profit from the endeavor." Needless to say, I gave up.
Some time later, i got a letter saying a firm in Paris now represented Thomson, and then another letter saying Thomson had changed it's structure and gave an address and fax to use for correspondence, as if I wanted to continue with something. They definitely had me on their radar for a bit.
Somewhere in the world, I figure that Technicolor probably has a massive file of everything RCA ever created, all cross-referenced for copyright inclusion, just so the shell that was RCA can still create revenue from litigation. I noticed that all RCA trademarks with the USPTO are registered through the Paris firm - they do keep all of that up-to-date, and they're probably churning out copyright renewals as well.
Hey, I tried. Most of the CRT guide I have is 25V tubes for later stuff, but is lacking in the A63-series stuff, the Sylvania and Raun stuff, and of course, the Asian CRTs as well. I'd love for some technical writer type to compile all I mentioned into a reference databook, so that it couldn't fall under derivative protection. Imagine one guide that lets you know all the good data - low focus, skinny/standard neck, eared or not, and the anode arrangement - for all CRTs.