"Polymorph"  wrote:

>I regretfully wish to inform you that I have taken down my entire Apple II 
>site (http://apple2.sytes.net/) due to recently receiving an email from 
>Vince M. Cooper (the original author of TML/Complete Pascal) threatening 
>legal action against me for offering TML Pascal/Complete Pascal items for 
>download from my website. This includes the manual that I translated from 
>French.

This seems excessive. I am sorry you couldn't find time to edit the pages 
that reference Mr. Cooper's literary work.

Also in Canada the product itself can be copied for research and private 
study without the permission of the copyright holder.  My rights to obtain 
this for reasearch and private study have now been violated unless Mr. 
Cooper makes this immediately available to me for this purpose as you did.

I am also sorry for the implication that Mr. Cooper has suffered some damage 
since it seems to me that the Apple II community has marketed this product 
for him without charge, and if anything has created a market for a product 
that should have been died a natural death. Perhaps Mr. Cooper owes you some 
money.

The manual should be excluded. Despite the fact that it is a derivative 
work, it was produced for research and private study and the product could 
not have been researched without it. Therefore it is a research paper and 
has been published by you and belongs to you.

Remember too that copyright cannot be used to exclude the public from access 
to a copyrighted work. If Mr. Cooper does not make his work available 
commercially, and free for private study and research, he may not withold 
it, nor may he claim he has been damaged if he does not demonstrate good 
will in offering this work to the public for the same platform with the same 
features.

Please provide the manual to me and I will put it on my Canadian Website 
www.appleoldies.ca

I will inform this gentleman that it has been placed there under MY RIGHTS 
under International Copyright Laws and is excluded from his property rights 
which do not outweigh the rights of the public.

I am not a lawyer of course but the fact is that we do not live in a feudal 
society and we have rights as the public that local jurisdictions can not 
enforce rulings against since they are bound by International Law.

If I get any flack from this guy I will ask the Canadian Law Society to 
offer this from their website as well and I will tell him so.

Bill
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