I am writing a report on the history of the unicycle. I have looked
all over for “The Unicycling Book” and for “The Complete Book of
Unicycling,” both by Jack Wiley, but they are not in my university
library or any local libraries. I was wondering if anyone has those
books and could fax the history pages to me with the copyright page so
that I may cite my sources. If this is at all possible just write back
and I will send a private e-mail to you with my fax number. I would
appreciate any help.
Faxing you those pages would violate everything the copyright page stands for. it just wouldn’t be right.
The ancestral father of the unicycle was the Penny-Farthing bikes of the latter 1800s. It’s been said that if you stopped abruptly on one, the whole back end would rise, thus leaving the rider on one wheel. Some people learned to ride 'em that way.
And thus came about the greatest human invention…
Re: unicycle history
SEMPER_UNI <SEMPER_UNI@NoEmail.Message.Poster.at.Unicyclist.com> writes:
> Faxing you those pages would violate everything the copyright page
> stands for. it just wouldn’t be right.
Not so! Copyright law makes exceptions for fair use. I’m no expert,
but I’d bet that this caase qualifies.
There’s a ton of info at fairuse.stanford.edu, I spend a minute there
and found http://www.cetus.org/fair5.html which says:
Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976. Limitations on exclusive
rights: Fair use
Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair
use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in
copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified in that
section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting,
teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship,
or research, is not an infringement of copyright.
Ken
Those books and similar turn up from time to time if you search ‘unicycle’ on www.ebay.co.uk
As for the copyright laws: they exist to protect the copyright owners’ income from the work they have written and published. From this it follows that faxing or photocopying huge extracts to save someone having to buy a copy is a breach of the letter and the spirit of the law.
It is permissible to copy and quote short extracts (a sentence or two - possibly a paragraph) but:
- If you do it for money, you’d be expected to seek permission from the copyright owner
- Otherwise, you’d be expected to give credit to the copyright owner or at least the author.
If something is no longer in print, then the option of buying your own new copy no longer exists. Therefore, making a copy has no direct effect on the copyright owner’s income from ownership of the copyright, and you could reasonably expect a greater level of tolerance - you could get away with more.
If researching a project for your own private enjoyment with no intention to publish or profit, you can get away with quite substantial breaches of copyright. If the publication is still in print, then being able to ‘get away with it’ doesn’t make it right. Chances are that if someone stole my car and torched it, they’d never be caught; it would still be wrong.
Re: unicycle history
Rocky, if you send me your email I can fax you the section on the history of unicycling from Sebastian Hoeher’s book, “Unicycling from beginner to expert”.
However, I will not, unfortunately, be at a fax machine until this coming Monday, December 8.
If waiting until next week is not a problem, please use my new email address, jsnood@verizon.net.spamsucks.
You know what to do with the spamsucks bit. 
Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ
that’s a pretty serious response
doesn’t rocky’s request for the copyright pages get him a lil’ slack? 
and if the library had the book and he could do his research from there and quote his sources, wouldn’t the author be as out-of-pocket as he would be if someone faxed him the requested bits?
i’m very concerned with copyright issues (and therefore only rip and burn CD’s i dont like) but i do think semper may have over-reacted ever so slightly
my two cents
hahaha. My “over reaction” was stated very non seriously. sorry if any thought i was actually being harsh. I f had the materials being requested i would have had no problem faxing or otherwise providing them. I saw the request and jumped to reply.
I thought it was funny, and in my own mind it still is.
kewl
pardon a smiley junkie for missing the note of sarcasm in your post
i suspect we’re on the same page now
Speaking of unicycle history, I recently received some excellent photos of Floyd Beattie circa 1987. A grad student in my lab is from Athens, Ohio and remembered seeing Floyd ride all around town when she was a child. Hearing that I was a unicylist familiar with Floyd’s notariety, her parents looked him up. Floyd delivered 3 nice 8x10’s and a hand written note for me to them. I will scan them soon and post them. Those interested in high-res versions can contact me.
You had me going, I wanted to FAX the whole book to the guy just as an over reaction, shame I havent got it…
Penny Farthing riders were the original skatepunks, they would do a skarey stunt in front of a cop, then ride away before they were caught. They also had a tendancy to throw their legs over the handlebars and coast down hills. This was safer than leaving the legs down, and it made the cops even madder! There is a good bicycle history book upstairs in the university library where I now sit, and I will try to get a look at it for you this weekend.
carjug
Re: unicycle history
While they may not be in local libraries, at least one–The Complete Book of Unicycling"–is still commercially available. One source is: http://www.dube.com/
I don’t have a good legal read either way on this one, but since mikefule brought up the issue of having more leeway when the book is no longer in print, I thought it worth mentioning.
Re: Re: unicycle history
As I understand it, as long as Rocky is not going to resell his faxed copy he’s on solid legal ground wrt fair use. His whole purpose for asking is to have hard copy references so he can properly cite them in a scholarly work.
BTW: Rocky, don’t forget to use quotes and cite the original author. Ask your teacher how to do this if you don’t know. Otherwise you’ll be guilty of plagerism which is a much more serious crime. Copyright infringement comes with a fine somewhat proportional to the loss of revenue; in this case, about $2. Plagerism can get you thrown out of college or fired with a black mark on your resume, which would reduce your earning power big time.