From: wsm26@cas.org (Wayne Mills)
Subject: Re: softcopy comic price guide information wanted!
Organization: Chemical Abstracts Service
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 12:47:45 GMT

In article <1992Aug11.214620.13087@u.washington.edu>, phaedrus@milton.u.washington.edu (Phaedrus) writes:
|> In article <1992Aug11.203151.18427@cas.org> wsm26@cas.org (Wayne Mills) writes:
|> >I'm spending a little time to figure out what some of my collection is
|> >'worth' based on recent Overstreet valuations.
|> >
|> >I'd like to request any softcopy files folks may have of recent Overstreet
|> >price information for almost any title.
|> 
|>      This would probably be a good time to note that Overstreet is a 
|> copyrighted work.  Posting brief portions of it (like the comparison of
|> Spiderman prices someone posted recently, or posting the guide prices of comics
|> you're selling) is probably okay under the "fair use" clause of the copyright
|> law, but reproducing any large portion of it would be illegal, and doing so in
|> this forum could land us all in deep trouble.

Actually the copyright notice in Overstreet says that "no part of this book
may be reproduced in any form... without prior written consent".  So
technically you should argue that even the brief portion posted previously 
would be illegal.

OPU #16 says Angel and the Ape #1 is worth $11!  Aargh!  I've just
violated the Overstreet copyright!  Oh no, here they come to take me away!
:-)  :-)

But wait!  Maybe my quote was in Canadian $$!  If so, and if Overstreet
is in US$ then I'm ok!?!??.....
:-) :-)

I'm no lawyer, but I feel that the use I am planning to make of the data
constitutes a fair use of the information I have purchased.  If not, then
you're taking the position that anyone who looks up a value in Overstreet
for a comic he owns, and then records that information in a database or
even just in a notebook, is violating the copyright!  If you don't then you're
just drawing the line where it's convenient for yourself and your uses.
I don't feel that copyrights are meant to be taken to this extreme.  Their
purpose is to prevent the author from being ripped off, having his profit
or his work stolen and/or in some way damaging the author -- say by publishing
a competing price guide.  Which would include disseminating large amounts
of softcopy price guide information to folks who haven't purchased the
price guide.

Now if I entered Overstreet information and then posted that I was going
to sell it on floppies for $5 ppd then I'd imagine there'd be a good number
of people reading that post who'd drop a line to Overstreet alerting them
to the illegal ripoff going on.  And soon I'd be in deep doo-doo.

|>      If you want price into, the Overstreet Price Update is very reasonably
|> priced, and usually contains most of the pricing info from the original
|> Overstreet, as well as the prices that have changed since then.

I'll clarify for anyone who didn't catch it -- I have the most
recent Overstreet Price Update.  I have the Overstreet Annual Price Guide.  
I have every Overstreet Price Guide since issue #5.  I have about a dozen
OPU's from the last several years.  Overstreet has had a jacuzzi put into
his master bath with the financial support I've provided to him!  :-)

All I want
to do is transfer the information my OPU contains into a softcopy file from
which I can then use a program I've written to read the price information
for many comics from my comic inventory.  This is merely a labor saving
proposition.  I really don't want to look up an issue, calculate a percentage
based on grade, multiply times the number of copies if I have duplicates,
and keep a running total of the value I've accumulated.  Besides the extra
time all that would take me I'm sure I'd introduce more errors than I would
with the approach I'm pursuing.

And given the parameters of my request, it would be safe to assume that
nearly everyone who provides Overstreet information to me also has an OPU.
The point of the collaboration is to save everyone some typing effort if they
have the Overstreet Annual or the latest OPU, not
to freely distribute Overstreet information in softcopy form to all comers.

---------------

    Woody:  Hey, Mr. Peterson, there's a cold one waiting for you.
    Norm:   I know, and if she calls, I'm not here.

---------------
Wayne Mills
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