On Sat, 30 Apr 2005 15:58:22 -0400, mc wrote:


"Winfield Hill" -edu wrote in
message ...
keith wrote...

On Thu, 28 Apr 2005 21:06:45 -0400, mc wrote:

How does free distribution of *obsolete* manuals work against
"encouraging
creativity"?

We are not attacking the concept of copyright. Many of us are saying HP
would benefit from allowing free redistribution on the Web of old
manuals
for equipment that they no longer sell.

In fact you are attacking the concept of copyright. Aligent owns the
copyright and has the last say. It seems that they _have_ reversed their
position, so maybe your whining did help. ;-)

I beg to differ, we did not attack Agilent's legal right to restrict the
manual information if they chose, we attacked Agilent's apparent choice
to do so.

Precisely. They have the legal right to restrict redistribution of this
stuff any way they want. However, it does not benefit them to do what they
were doing. That was everyone's point except Keith's.

Yer an idiot (no surprise here). My argument is simply that *ONLY*
they have the right to decide what is to be done with their IP. If they
want to be stupid, so be it. Indeed they may not have had control over
that IP (apparently not the case). For instance, car manufacturers have
sold the reproduction/sales rights for their manuals to a third party.

Apparently HP has rethought their position, so be it. That doesn't
change the fact that they have that right.

--
Keith