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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I think both sides need to take a deep breath here.
Techs, lets not brag about what we can do with all the info in the PPA while Mr.
Ashley has a fit about it. Show the man some respect. Mr. Ashley, I've bought
probably 6 copies of your book over 30 years, same with a lot of other guys on
this list. We're your market, the only thing that is going to happen as a result
of this activity is your book will become even more well known in the industry,
if that's possible. Let's take our lawyers off speed dial before one
accidentally goes off and somebody gets shot. Man, I don't think it would do the
reputation of your book and Mr. Pierce's legacy much good if you started suing
the Piano Technicians.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Fenton (not my real name)</FONT></DIV>
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style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=custos3@comcast.net href="mailto:custos3@comcast.net">Israel
Stein</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=pianotech@ptg.org
href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Friday, February 29, 2008 7:48
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: unethical and illegal
behavior on the part of some </DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>At 02:01 AM 2/29/2008, Gregor wrote:<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=cite cite="" type="cite">
<DL>
<DD><FONT color=#ff0000>I donīt know the US law, but in Germany thatīs
definetly illegal. A few years ago a company decided to sell the local
phonebooks on CD. Therefore they paid people in India and China to type it
from the printed books. The printed books were sold by another company.
That ended in a court decision that this is illegal. I think the copyright
law is similiar all over the world, so I think it should be illegal in the
USA, too.<BR></FONT>
<DD><BR>
<DD><FONT color=#ff0000>Gregor</FONT></DD></DL></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DL></DL><BR>Yes.<BR><BR>It seems that US law at this point is out of whack
with the norms and standards accepted worldwide through international
copyright treaties. Until a fairly recent US Supreme Court decision, most US
courts ruled as above, where copyright protection was extended to the fruits
of extensive research. The Supreme Court, in its great wisdom, struck those
decisions down. At this point a bill has been pending in Congress for several
years to make US law conform to international standards, but to date it has
not been acted on.<BR><BR>So, while such protection may be (and I stress "may
be" because none of us here are lawyers) unenforceable in US courts, it is
essentially due to a very narrow legal interpretation by one US court that is
not accepted worldwide. So at the very least, the practice of disseminating
the material publicly, and publishing it through electronic media on a widely
accessible e-mail list (which constitute a permanent record accessible
to a wide public - and not a single communication to a single person, which is
perfectly fine) is unethical by international standards. <BR><BR>And I suspect
that US law will sooner or later be adjusted to conform with International
standards. It seems that databases generated in Europe have general copyright
protection on the underlying facts, and those generated in the US do not. That
puts US databases at a competitive disadvantage on the international market -
and sooner or later there will be sufficient pressure from the information
industry to fix that. <BR><BR>All of this puts the PTG and Andy Rudoff in an
awkward position, since the Pierce Atlas is an important industry resource,
and the PTG is not interested in interfering with his ability to generate
income from his business. And by maintaining this mailing list which allows
practicing piano technicians to avoid the purchase of the directory by asking
others to extract facts from this directory and publicly publish them as a
permanent record (which is what posting on this list amounts to) they make the
PTG and Mr. Rudoff accessories to this ethically questionable behavior.
<BR><BR>Mr. Rudoff - who owns the server on which this list lives and kindly
makes it available for our use - has asked that this behavior cease.
Regardless of any legal technicalities, this is the only consideration that is
relevant here. So I suggest that any further questions regarding piano dates
be referred to the Pierce Piano Atlas or some other resource - and not
answered on this list. And I would not blame Mr. Rudoff if he unsubscribes
persons who ignore his request. <BR><BR>Israel Stein
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