Just to add to the discussion.
Jeff 's attitude may be a little harsh for the typical KR builder (me included)
but he is not far off from a legal stand point. Unless WW patents his designs
or portions of them they are available for copying or should I say reverse
engineering. This protection costs $$'s and even more $$'s to enforce your
rights. I work for a company that is reverse engineering a competitors product
and yes it is aviation related. The real question is can you make a business
case for doing this?
Regarding the copyright issue. The law (at least in the US) only requires that
a creator put their work in a tangible form to obtain copyright protection.
WW's manual is tangible. WW limits the use of his manual for conversion of one
motor and that is a license. You can currently register your work yourself with
the government for $45 this gives you some additional protection and I think it
is worth the hassel (Later this year the price will drop to $35 for
e-registering). In case you are wondering NO I am not a lawyer but I do this
stuff every day as a welding engineer assigned to our legal department.
I purchased the WW manual (and now the assembly videos) and have a Vair in
parts in my barn awaiting the $'s to send the crank out and to buy the
Vari-IOU-s parts for the conversion. The original plan was to build a Flybaby
but a KR project fell into my lap (which included another WW manual and 2 KR
manuals all original and yes I sent letters to WW & JR to transfer the
registration of these manuals so now I am double booked with both).
I am not planning to be a regular poster but I am a regular reader of the list
and the web forum.
Project status. - Picked up the project In late last year
Boat complete - Thanks to 3 previous builders (I am #4)
Diel Gear and wing skins still in the boxes
RR canopy and rear turtle deck.
I am starting to organize prior to this years building season (it has been too
cold in Connecticut to build in my barn with no heat) and I am finding that
during the winter and with the project I have collected a lot of "extras". I am
a big ebay buyer and I guess I will start to sell the stuff soon. When I get
ready to list what I have I'll post it here and on the web first so the KR
community can have first shot at it.
Thanks to everyone including Jeff that contribute to this group it helps those
of us who are babes in the KR woods from getting two lost.
Gary Shubert
East Hampton, Connecticut
N325JG
