[Nut-upsdev] [HCL]<Manufacturer>Powercom<Device>all ups<driver>usbhid-ups

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

Hi Jim,

As a published author I'm going to jump in here and make a correction 
you might think it small but it's extremely important.

Under WIPO and copyright law setout therein, facts ARE NOT 
copyrightable.  Powercom cannot dictate terms to us or to anyone on how 
the the documentation they sent to us is used.  Only expressions are 
copyrightable.

I realize it may be hairsplitting to you.  Let me illustrate:

The sentence:

"The AC Adapter runs off 60Hz power"

is not copyrightable.  However, the sentence:

We recommend that the AC adapter be used on a power strip with surge 
suppression"

is copyrightable because it's an expression.

In short, Powercom has no legal ability to exercise copyright control 
because of any business requirement to make information available - in 
short, they may want the old docs removed (so as to enhance sales of new 
devices or any other reason) however they have no legal authority to 
demand this.

Do not give them a legal power to do this by asking whether or not we 
can keep the old docs up.  Under copyright law they do not have this power.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't be nice, they asked us to remove the old 
docs, and while they have no legal authority to make that request we can 
acknowledge that they have expressed that desire and try to honor it as 
much as is reasonable by prominently marking the old docs as obsolete.  
I'll assume their motivation to take the old docs down is to prevent 
confusion among developers when there is a conflict between the old doc 
and the new doc.  I'm just trying to explain we can't do that since we 
have to still support the old gear, but we can eliminate that possible 
confusion by being explicit on what is what.

Ted

On 10/20/2021 12:04 PM, Jim Klimov wrote:
> Thanks Ted,
>
>   that echoes my thoughts: any HW supported by NUT at some point and 
> with a population of units physically alive, whether marketed or 
> supported by original vendors or not, should better be documented.
>
>   So if the old docs are in some way better than new one, even if 
> explaining quirks not relevant and not documented for same-named 
> models or firmware sold today, I believe such docs should remain 
> available (maybe marked as old stuff, but ready for revision). After 
> all, currently shipped drivers probably correspond to that spec?..
>
> @Dinow: how strict is the business/etc. requirement to make that older 
> info truly unavailable? Can we keep it visible but maybe marked 
> deprecated?
>
> Jim
>
> On Wed, Oct 20, 2021, 12:05 Ted Mittelstaedt via Nut-upsdev 
> <nut-upsdev at alioth-lists.debian.net> wrote:
>
>
>     Thanks, Dinow,
>
>
>     I'm not a NUT admin but you posted this to a public mailing list
>     so I'm going to just send a response to that list since it's a
>     public posting.
>
>
>     The current documentation you sent is much sparser than the older
>     docs.  So I think the older docs are going to still be valuable
>     for just that reason alone, as an addition to the newer current
>     documentation.  I do not know what the admins are going to do but
>     I would hope they merely mark the old documents as "Old" and add
>     this to them.
>
>
>     Unlike commercial software, open source software projects usually
>     do not have the luxury of removing support for older hardware that
>     is no longer in production from the manufacturer.
>
>
>     As a NUT user I cannot thank you enough for supporting open source
>     software projects like NUT.
>
>
>     Ted
>
>
>
>     On 10/19/2021 7:28 PM, dinow via Nut-upsdev wrote:
>>
>>     Good Day NUT administrators
>>
>>     AA. My name is Dinow and the engineer of *Powercom* corporation
>>
>>     BB. Could you help us to :
>>
>>         B1. *Remove* the current list from Powercom  >>
>>     https://networkupstools.org/ups-protocols.html
>>     <https://networkupstools.org/ups-protocols.html>:
>>
>>       * USB information for BNT series
>>       * USB information for IMPERIAL series
>>       * USB information for SKP series
>>       * USB information for WOW series
>>
>>         B2. *Add* a item and its document
>>
>>       * USB information for *all* Powercom's UPS
>>       * Add attached *PDF* as its document
>>
>>     CC. Big Thanks for your help
>>
>>     If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to inform us
>>
>>     Sincerely yours truly, Oct. 20th
>>
>>     Dinow Hsieh
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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