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Gerard,

Your points are well taken.

When I wrote to Starpath that I understood that they neeeded to protect
their investment but questioned their policies, here is how David Burch
replied in an email to me dated 29 Jan 03:


"There are many advantages to registering a software product and all
quality
software these days is registered, not just ours. It is your proof of
purchase for free updates and replacement as needed, as well, in our
case,
to access to (sic)various online resources about to become available."

"It is not at all a simple matter of investment protection for most of
our
products since that only relates to dishonest customers and we have very

very few of these, (sic) but in this particular case copy protection is
a factor."

"it(sic)is extremely unlikely that we would ever recoup our expenses in
producing this product. we (sic)did it as a labor of love.... but this
text
actually costs some $1000 if it could be found at all, and we have a
tremendous amount of work and expense in its electronic reproduction. If

just one printable copy got lose (sic)on the internet or into the hands
of a
printer, all of our work, which we are in effect donating to the
maritime
community, will have been lost.  I do not expect profit, but I do at
least
expect to get the credit for it."


I certainly recognise the enormous amount of work they put into this --
and it is a high quality production -- but one would think that there
would be some way for them to get "credit" for it and still make it
available as a printable copy.  Maybe I'm being na�ve.

Frankly, I was surprised that Starpath were selling it for only $39.95.
I for one would be willing to pay a bit more if I could have a printed
copy.

Regards,
Bill




-----Original Message-----
From: Navigation Mailing List
[mailto:NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM] On Behalf Of Gerard
Mittelstaedt
Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2003 8:45 PM
To: NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM
Subject: 1851 Bowditch


Hi,
 One could, if they had enough time, and an available paper copy of 1851
Bowditch, just scan it in themselves and make their own electronic
copy... and distribute it. Copyright is NOT an issue if one works from
an original .. for 2 reasons... time and the fact that it was a US Govt.
doc.  It would be a lot of work, but not impossibly much, for someone
who has a scanner and lots of time... or a burning
desire.   Maybe when I retire in another 5 or 10 years.
--
---------------
Gerard Mittelstaedt    mitt@hiline.net
McAllen, Texas
USA

   

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