[pianotech] Steinway parts list

[Delwin D Fandrich]

Nope. Read the attachment. Copyright law gives the copyright owner control
over distribution whether by sale or otherwise.

 

ddf

 

Delwin D Fandrich

Piano Design & Fabrication

6939 Foothill Court SW, Olympia, Washington 98512 USA

Phone  360.515.0119 - Cell  360.388.6525

del at fandrichpiano.com  <mailto:del at fandrichpiano.com> - ddfandrich at gmail.com

 

From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of tnrwim at aol.com
Sent: Sunday, March 27, 2011 6:13 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Steinway parts list

 

As I understand it, the purpose of copyright is not so much for the
protection of what is written, as it is for the protection of the money to
made off copyrighted material. A piece of music, for example, is
copyrighted, so that the composer and publisher is assured that they will
get paid for composing and publishing that piece of music. There is even a
system in place so that when music is performed and/or played, in a public
setting. like concert or on the radio, compensation is made to the
composer/publisher. Violations, such as copying music, instead of buying
copies, are against the law. Obviously, someone who copies copyrighted
material and passes it off as his own, much less tries to sell it to make
money for himself, is also in violation of copyright law. 

 

The price list that Steinway published is not for sale. In fact, Steinway
distributed it free of charge. No one is making any money off the price
list, per se. The price list is information to be used by whomever, to buy
products from Steinway. Because Steinway sent the price list to the general
public, even if that general public was a select group of people,  the
public that received that price list is allowed to use it as they see fit.
In other words, there is nothing Steinway can do to prevent a technician who
received the price list to send it to his customers, or even to the
newspaper if he wanted to.  

 

Again, if a customer wants to go to the trouble of finding out what we pay
for Steinway parts, he'll do it. I don't think it's a secret, and none of us
are violating any business practices, much less the law, by distributing the
price list on this forum.  

 

Wim 

-----Original Message-----
From: Israel Stein <custos3 at comcast.net>
To: pianotech <pianotech at ptg.org>
Cc: David Boyce <David at piano.plus.com>
Sent: Sun, Mar 27, 2011 7:04 am
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Steinway parts list

On 11:59 AM, David Boyce wrote: 

I know. That is why I ended my post with 

More pertinent here, though, is the aspect of business confidentiality and
business relationships.

End of pedantic rant.

I mentioned the broad principle of copyright law (not, surely, mere
technicalities; the very fundamentals) as somewhat of an aside, since Del
brought it up.  He correctly pointed out a main principle of copyright that
often seems not be be realised: that copyright is not something you DO; it's
a right that IS.

Kind regards,

David Boyce.


David,

And here you are, of course, correct. In my former career as a commercial
photographer I had lots of occasions to deal with the general public's
ignorance of copyright law, where I had to send some stern warnings to
clients who made unauthorized uses of my work. Fortunately for them, it
never came to legal action, because under US copyright law the presumption
is with the copyright holder - unless the user can produce a clear grant of
license for the disputed use or show that "fair use" exceptions apply. And
there are statutory fines and damages for each instance of violation - so it
could get quite expensive... 

The problem in the US might be that US copyright law was not brought in line
with international treaty standards until sometime in the 70's. Until then
copyrights had to be registered, and any publication of a work without a
registered copyright could throw the work into the public domain (with a
very broad definition of what constitutes "publication"). Too many folks are
under the impression that the pre-70's regulations are still in force. This
is just not so. As David writs, copyright is automatic upon creation of a
work, and is in force for at least the lifetime of the author - unless there
is a specific grant of rights to others. Now, what constitutes a "work" is a
very complex question, having to do with what is original from the author
and what is not. 

Israel Stein 

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