This morning I posted up a few diagrams I think may help others down the road. But I was a little concerned about posting what I’m guessing may be copyrighted GM materials from 1966.

Are these materials public domain these days? I.e. should I not be worried? Or are they just so old that no one will ever care?

I’m not about to post an entire CSM or Fisher Body Manual in totality, but it feels right when discussing a steering column, or shifter, or steering linkage to share what the factory did when building our cars.

Does CO have any opinions or guidance to offer?

 

We have others that sell copies of GM/Olds CSM etc., so I don't see it as being a problem. I have many downloaded copies of service bulletins, several that came from the GM heritage center.

 

 

If you are doing it for profit, you may run into trouble; otherwise, you're most likely OK. GM has gone after for-profit entities for trademark infringement. For example, a certain T-shirt vendor who attended every Oldsmobile Nationals and sold a variety of GM-branded merchandise without GM approval was shut down about 10 years or so ago. Enthusiasts sharing information for free hasn't been an issue.

 

There exists several factors involved in the Fair Use Doctrine (Index) and how the courts have interpreted Fair Use. U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use Index

Of particular importance, IMO, is the following:

To that end, I am of the opinion: Oldsmobile Corporation no longer exists & no longer produces any Chassis Service Manual. Albeit, there can't exist any infringement of the copyright owner's original work if the copyright owner no longer exists and it would be impossible to displace sales of any originals.

 

My 1970 Oldsmobile Chassis Service manual is copyrighted by "General Motors Corp." and not Oldsmobile.

 

General Motors no longer manufactures Oldsmobile.

 

Look lets' be fair about this. You can purchase ANY of these COPYRIGHT protected manuals on nearly any Internet website in used condition. We're sharing (Fair Use) information. There do exist retailers who sell "licensed" copies of the same information and sell copies in "New" condition. I have absolutely no idea if they "pay" ANY license fees to General Motors Corporation. We're sharing, again IMO, Fair Use information. I'm not sure how far down a pigeon hole anyone wants to crawl, but the blatant copying and pasting of ANY original use information anyone finds on the Internet without providing the SOURCE (reference) of information is guilty of plagiarism and in many cases copyright infringement. Most of us would never have achieved any degree. We routinely and repeatedly steal, share, and copy information from almost ANYWHERE.

I think the entire point is moot, TBH.

 

Trademarks have to be in commercial active use; so "Oldsmobile" would be inactive or "Dead" by the USPTO.. Copyrights however don't have to be in active use and last much longer, usually 70 years. Even if assuming the CSM is copyrighted, (copyrighte are usually granted to the authors who then may assigned them over to their publisher or employer) since it is being used in on this site in what is considered "Fair Use"; No worries at all here.

 

Let's don't go too far down the rabbit hole. I'm not too worried about them coming after me for a diagram or 2

I'm not interested in profiting from GM or Oldsmobile IP at all.

I mostly wanted to be sure I wasn't running afoul of rules by InternetBrands and/or ClassicOlds.

Cheers
Chris

 

I would remote host it and link to it.

Oldsmobile is dead, but the trademarks are live. The H/OCA had to license the emblem with GM because it had an H/O logo and the words Hurst/Olds in it.

 

The majority of the uses of word Oldsmobile are dead at the USPTO. There is no trademark record for "Hurst/Olds" but the logo maybe copyrighted.

Record List Display (uspto.gov)

 

I’m not an attorney, but we’ve been posting excerpts and literature from GM for years on here and IB hasn’t mentioned an issue. They monitor the site also.

 

That really doesn't mean much.

 

I usually take a picture of a diagram if I post it. That means I own the copyright to that picture. I’m not copying anything. It’s my picture to control. Besides, if it’s a partial piece of the whole and used for educational purposes, the Fair Use should kick in. The educational use, that I can find, doesn’t delineate whether you have to be in a formal classroom setting or simply expanding someone else’s skills by showing them a picture of a book page.