[sdiy] Reprinting Electronotes

[Jeffrey D. McEachin]

At 01:15 AM 12/14/02 -0600, Grant Richter wrote:
>The way Bernie Hutchins tells it...
>
>Back when the wave of "vintage" synth fever came up, a number of websites
>appeared offering the "Preferred Circuits Collection" and other Electronotes
>material for sale. These were scams where crooks would just take the money
>and not send anything back.

What actually happened is that there was a copy of the PCC that was to be mailed to one person, who would copy it and mail it to the next person, et cetera, until everyone who wanted one had a copy.  AFAIK, no money changed hands.  Hardly a criminal enterprise.  The participating parties resorted to this because several people, including one of the most beloved and respected German members of this list, had tried to buy EN material from Bernie, but got no response.  Oh, and another very esteemed listmember said he had been granted permission by Bernie to make copies for his friends.  Of course Bernie denied this and sent a nastygram to the list.  It was quite ugly watching everyone's hero act the way he did.  Many people sent him the full price of the PCC, despite having paid the photocopying costs.

I just wish Bernie would take a complete set of EN across campus to the Cornell Law School, and ask a professor who teaches copyright law to explain to him exactly what is and isn't protected by copyright.  Perhaps then we could build on the shoulders of a giant, rather than fearing lawsuits for creating derivative works.

BH & EN is an issue that incites passion every time it's raised here.  I would guess that synth-diy is divided into three camps - those who respect him so much that they don't care what he does, those that distrust him based on his past actions towards synth-diy, and those standing on the sidelines wondering what all the fuss is about.  But I think we all agree that Bernie Hutchins has done as much as anyone in advancing the art of building your own synth.

JDM

PS: No, I did not participate in the alleged grand scheme to defraud Bernie, and I still don't own a copy of the PCC.