<html> <body> At 04:30 PM 2/28/2008, David Boyce wrote: <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">The only thing they own is their own TYPOGRAPHICAL ARRANGEMENT of the information they have collected. No matter how many years it took them to collect the information, they don't own the information.    An electronically produced list is NOT illegal, unless it is a reproduced scan of the pages of Pierce.  If you sit and type it all out yourself as a list of numbers etc, in your own arrangement, without any of Pierce's editorial content, that is legal.</blockquote> Nonsense. When the information is a result of extensive research, it is a work product that is given copyright protection. Especially when the resources on which the information is based are no longer extant (as is true in the case of most US piano manufacturers.) Most of the  records and the people from where/whom the information originally came are no longer around, since the demise of the US piano industry...  So Pierce is probably the sole source for most of this information... And it is quite easy to file a copyright infringement suit. And the evidence is right here in the list archives. And then you need to defend the suit - because if you don't, then there is a default judgement entered, and the statutory fines are $750 to $30,000 per instance. So you do the math... Israel Stein </body> </html>