Re: Who owns copyright on old computer mags?

[blackm00@cam.org (Michael Black)]

In article <3870D8F8.DDAB3741@bell.ca>, Dan Gahlinger
<dan.gahlinger@bell.ca> wrote:

> What about the ever-famous (and best CBM mag ever) - that being
> TRANSACTOR?
> 
> I'm in toronto (where they were based) and there's not a trace of them
> to be found.
> Thankfully I have just about every issue ever published! (still in good
> condition, except the odd one).
> 
> Dan.

That reminds me of visiting Toronto, perhaps it was as late as 1989,
and visiting a surplus store on Queen Street, and seeing part or was
it a complete unit, of an adaptor for the Commodore 64 so it could
run programs from other computers.  It was add-on hardware, and I
think it added emulation for more than one computer, but definitely
the Apple II.  I can picture an ad for the unit, but the rest of the
details are hazy.  Needless to say, the units being sold at the surplus
store were cheap by then.

Though I haven't seen any from him in a while, I have seen posts
from Jim Butterfield, who wrote  extensively about the Commodore
computers.  I know he wrote for Compute! and I think he wrote for
Transactor and maybe even was on the masthead.  I think I've
seen him in alt.folklore computers and I know I've seen him in
the past in the Toronto-local newsgroups, most likely tor.general

   Michael

> 
> "Mr. Boffo" wrote:
> 
> > (Reposting.... sorry.. my clock was screwed up and messed up
> > the message threading in the newsreader. Here it is again.)
> >
> > One of the recent developments in this age of cheap storage
> > is the arrival of the CD-ROM magazine archive. Some comics
> > and some magazines (like MAD Magazine) are making available
> > on CD-ROM the pages from all their old magazines.
> >
> > It occurs to me that there may be a market for the old
> > computer magazines from the 80's which have now died out..
> > Nibble, Family Computing, A+, Compute!, SofTalk, Creative
> > Computing, InCider...
> >
> > I would be VERY interested in buying a CD-ROM compendium of
> > all pages from these old magazines. However, I have no idea
> > who owns the copyright for the old magazines, so I have no
> > way of approaching this idea.
> >
> > Maybe somebody in these newsgroups might know?
> >
> > Now, I COULD create a website and just upload scans from the
> > magazines I have, but that would likely draw various legal
> > problems which I'd rather not deal with. I would really much
> > prefer that the actual copyright owners are involved in
> > approving or doing something like this themselves.
> >
> > OTOH, posting those old mags on a website may be EXACTLY the
> > way to find those copyright holders! ;)
> >
> > -Mr. Boffo
> >
> > Email: mister_boffo@hotmail.com