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So I collect old manuals from WWII. All were produced by or for the military and are now 100% in the public domain (confirmed for me by the military many years ago; nothing is classified or whatever just things like training manuals and instructions on maintenance of equipment that is no longer used by any military not just western ones).
I am on several forums where we discuss the various stuff in these manuals and on occasion have shared digital copies of my manuals with other users on the public forum (and they have with me). I have no problem sharing these manuals and I always have a disclaimer below that says that they are for historical discussion purposes only, not for profitable use etc.
However I am keenly aware that there is a big market for these manuals, particularly on sites like ebay. I do on occasion buy physical manuals I see come up, but I know several sellers also sell digital copies which some people prefer.
I have noticed recently a guy is selling a copy of a manual I uploaded. It's only £10, but I uploaded that manual for people to use for free, not to profit from. I know he is also selling manuals other users on the same forum uploaded (but they didn't put the disclaimer I put).
I have reached out to him to ask him to remove the ones he took off the site that were my uploads (provided proof I was the same person and comparisons between my upload and his - they even have the same stain in the top corner of page 67 when I accidentally spilled coffee on my desk while I was reading the manual; which I highly doubt someone else's copy is going to have in exactly the same space, geometry etc.) and his response was basically for me to go and kick rocks.
What I want to know is do I have any kind of legal recourse given he is 100% stealing my work that I said could only be passed on for free or is it in effect a non-issue because the work is public domain? And if I can would the other users of the site who didn't put the disclaimer up be able to as well or as they put a scan of a public domain manual are they in effect SOL?
Thanks
I am on several forums where we discuss the various stuff in these manuals and on occasion have shared digital copies of my manuals with other users on the public forum (and they have with me). I have no problem sharing these manuals and I always have a disclaimer below that says that they are for historical discussion purposes only, not for profitable use etc.
However I am keenly aware that there is a big market for these manuals, particularly on sites like ebay. I do on occasion buy physical manuals I see come up, but I know several sellers also sell digital copies which some people prefer.
I have noticed recently a guy is selling a copy of a manual I uploaded. It's only £10, but I uploaded that manual for people to use for free, not to profit from. I know he is also selling manuals other users on the same forum uploaded (but they didn't put the disclaimer I put).
I have reached out to him to ask him to remove the ones he took off the site that were my uploads (provided proof I was the same person and comparisons between my upload and his - they even have the same stain in the top corner of page 67 when I accidentally spilled coffee on my desk while I was reading the manual; which I highly doubt someone else's copy is going to have in exactly the same space, geometry etc.) and his response was basically for me to go and kick rocks.
What I want to know is do I have any kind of legal recourse given he is 100% stealing my work that I said could only be passed on for free or is it in effect a non-issue because the work is public domain? And if I can would the other users of the site who didn't put the disclaimer up be able to as well or as they put a scan of a public domain manual are they in effect SOL?
Thanks
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