mcintyre

Yes, I think that when I created a copy for myself I may have violated the copyright. Fortunately, since there was no way to purchase one, the copyright owner didn't suffer much measurable damage. On the other hand, the US Copyright laws in sections 17 U.S.C. 106 and 17 U.S.C. 106A, do provide for a fair use exemption for "research", and one of the guidelines for fair use is "the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work" so maybe I am within fair use guidelines. Since I'm only collecting handbooks for my own non-profit "research" I don't really have a feeling of guilt. Again, I would still purchase an original edition if it was available.

Yes, written works are copyrighted, even if you don't register them. Registering them makes them easier to defend. But, the idea is not really about copyright here. I have no interest in infringing on anyone's copyrights. I just want the great katalogs to be available. The idea is whether or not the people who hold the copyright now care if the item is published freely. Since they haven't done anything with the katalogs in quite a few years, and aftermarket copies sell for many $'s, there is clearly a need. If they would republish the katalogs we would all be happy to buy them. I would buy them even though I have great copies. If they don't want to republish the katalogs, and they are ok with me putting them out for free, I'll give them out for free. In either case the great legacy of Kahuna's Katalogs will be extended. So, have no fear, copyrights are being respected. -Melgamatic

Somehow the email address associated with my account got changed to someone else's. I just went to check it, and it was clearly a scouting-associated email address, but not mine. Unfortunately, I was unable to run the preferences changing page (in both IE7 and Firefox), so my email address is wrong... If you could re-send me that information at: melgamatic@race-stuff.com I'd appreciate it. Thanks, Dave

Excellent, and thank you very much. In the meantime, I managed to borrow a Kahunas Katalog of Cub Scout Literature, of which I've also made a nice PDF version. It's smaller than the Merit Badge Katalog at only 143 pages. It also has "Proof Edition" on the front cover, so I don't know if it was widely-distributed. It seems to go up to late 1991 (with some 1992 editions listed with no details). -Dave

Yes, I agree F&B is great, and the new edition will be great, but at this point I want to know how many different star versions there were in the 9/1944 37th printing of the 4th edition (I have four different versions so far). Does the KK have that level of detail? For the KK of Merit Badge books, I paid for two-way Fed Ex shipping, completed the scanning in a couple of hours, and had the book back to the owner in 3 days or so. The new Fujitsu SnapScan scanner is pretty amazing. Load it up with 50 pages, hit the button, and in around 25 seconds you have the PDF on the computer. Lightyears better than any other scanner I've ever even heard of. I put the title page of the KK of MBP here: http://www.race-stuff.com/binary/KKMBpage1.pdf just in case anyone hadn't seen it before. I know many people wouldn't be comfortable shipping their KK, and I understand that, but if anyone ever is interested in getting their copy scanned, just let me know. -Dave

Also, I already have a copy of Fisk and Bearce, but it is nowhere as detailed on handbooks as the Katalog (at least I am told). The KK of Merit Badge handbooks is vastly more detailed that F&B, if that is any guide. -Dave

Thanks for the replies. I posted on the ISCA forum first, so if anyone there knows anything about it hopefully they will let me know. I also joined the patch-L list. I agree about the potential issues, which is why I haven't publically offered the PDF yet. Thanks again, Dave

question OK to redistribute Kahuna's Katalog? (davidmcintyre) Posted: 1:40:22 pm on 5/29/2008 Modified: Never I am a relative newcomer to the scouting collectible hobby, but have managed to amass a pretty good collection of handbooks since starting out. Except for a few of the rarest Original Editions, I have nearly a full set of editions, printings, versions, etc. I realized that I need to consult what everyone seems to regard as the ultimate resource for Handbook collecting: Kahuna's Katalog. Unfortunately, Joe Price passed away, and appears not to have distributed very many of the katalogs. I've been searching for a KK of Handbooks, and managed to borrow a KK of Merit Badge Booklets, which I scanned. So, I now have a very nice scanned PDF version of the Kahuna's Katalog of Merit Badge Booklets (1st edition, 1st printing, 9/1987). It is around 10MB. I also have a potential chance to scan a KK of Cub Scouting books, which I hope to do very soon. Does anyone think it would be improper for me to freely distribute that PDF? I'd mostly like to use it as an incitement to get someone to loan me their KK of Handbooks, but I would probably just put it on a website for downloading. Joe isn't around, he didn't make a big deal about putting a trademark on the KK I have (which doesn't change anything legally but makes me feel like he wasn't super concerned about it getting distributed), and I am not sure anyone is going to take up that project. If there were new copies available I'd buy one (as would many of you), but there aren't even used copies available at any price (and the last one on ebay, a few months before I started collecting, went for ~$250). So, does anyone think it would be bad to freely distribute a PDF scan of the Kahuna's Katalogs? Thanks, Dave

In the past 6 months or so I've been building a reasonable collection of Handbooks, with a good copy of almost every printing of the second and third editions (1914 thru 1940). I've been realizing that there are some printing differences (eg, between the first half and second half of some printings), and I need to learn more. I have the Fisk and Bearce guide to collecting, but I'm told that Kahunas Katalog has even more information. Sooooo...I am looking for a Kahunas Katalog. If anyone has one they'd like to sell, or know of someplace where I can find one, please let me know. Thanks, Dave