My "pirate" copies of J.B. Nicholson's...

[Sarge]

Modern Motorcycle Mechanics, Second Edition (1945): American; Harley & Indian sections excerpted, are no longer available, as the result of a very civil and polite request I received from the last copyright holder.

Those 133 pages scanned from the 67-year-old book amount to the VL Model Service Manual that the Harley-Davidson Motor Company never printed, along with his Indian information. We look forward to the copyright holder soon following up with his plans to publish a complete CD reprint of the long-out-of-print tome, that we can all use and enjoy.

[2vls]

I'm confident everyone will find this book extremely helpful, Sarge.

Walt
32V4191

[Rubone]

I have all seven issues / revisions of Nicholson's books. They are a treasure trove of info.
Robbie

[Sarge]

The owner of the copyrights to them told me he plans to make them available as a CD "boxed set," so that this treasure from decades ago will once more become available. That will be a boon for owners of American as well as British iron.

He wasn't sure, I don't think, that there was enuf interest. Perhaps we've done a little to change his mind with this little "project," and the response I've gotten in just a couple of weeks. It can't happen soon enuf, for me!

[Rubone]

I think he will do it sooner than later. Sarge, Have you read his book on Bernie Nicholson. It is a fun read!
Robbie

[BNSONS]

Dated 3 march 2012

Sarge
How does copyright laws affect the scanning of these books & how can you find out if the publishers copyrights have been renewed. I understand if a book has been published from 1923-63 it’s protected for 28 years and it can possibly be renewed for a total of 67 years or if not renewed it goes to public domain. Since I have a large library of old m/c books, what is the source to check out what has been renewed.

Regards Dave

Sarge
No wonder you never replied to this (my) p.m. on this subject. And I thought you knew better.

[Sarge]

I knew it was iffy, Dave, but I got the information out to some people who could use it. I have no idea if the present claimant to ownership of the Modern Motorcycle Mechanics series has legitimate claim to it or not, but I'm not a copyright attorney and I'm not contesting his claim. I'm not going to line any lawyers' pockets to find out. He said he does own it; that's good enuf for me.

There's no serious money to be made, that I can see, in that very tiny, specialized field of CD publishing. It's more a labor of love. Personally, if "MMM" isn't in the public domain, perhaps it should be, but I told him I wouldn't distribute any more copies I made as a favor to him and to keep the peace. I just wanted to increase awareness and interest in what a knowledge source the old "MMM" series is.

Those dozen or so folks who wrote me promptly got a copy of the homemade scans I made of only the American section of the 2nd Edition, the "meat," for a VL or and Indian guy. I hope he goes through with his plans to have the whole series professionally scanned and published to CDs. I'm sure that, between the American and British bike enthusiasts who can benefit, plenty of copies will sell. I'll even buy a copy, just to see what it looks like.

[2vls]

I'll happily publicize it in our club (130 members); I know some of the guys will dig it.

[Sarge]

From: http://users.trytel.com/~pbkerr/copyright.html

"Copyright comes into existence automatically, at the time the work was created, and, in the case of most works, it continues until the end of the calendar year in which the author of the work dies (regardless of whether the author has sold or assigned the copyright in the work or not), and continues for an additional period of 50 years.
"One very significant right granted to the owner of Canadian copyright in a work, is the exclusive right to reproduce the work, (or any substantial part of the work) in any material form whatever."

http://www.modernmotorcyclemechanics.com/book_info.php
J.B."Bernie" Nicholson: "retired to Calgary in 1977 & died there on Dec. 17, 2001."

editions appeared in 1942, 1945, 1948, 1953, 1965, 1969 and 1974.

Source: Greg Williams, Wordman5 on this and the AMCA forums (current holder of the copyright to the Modern Motorcycle Mechanics series), which he says was signed over to him by the heirs of J.B."Bernie" Nicholson: http://www.modernmotorcyclemechanics.com/bio.php