I have been interested in old plans for many years. It seemed that I was always on the prowl for plans from which I could build all kinds of things I wanted but couldn,t really afford to buy. I found out quite early on that many very suitable plans were to be found in old editions of magazines such as Science And Mechanics and a number of other similar magazines. Over a period of years I put together a collection of many hundreds of plans for all kinds of things.
Later I discovered that the majority of these plans which were first published prior to 1964 were no longer copyright and were in fact in the "public domain", as a result of their copyright never being renewed before the expiry date. Everything published in the USA before the year 1923 is also automatically in the public domain with no exceptions. Since they are no longer in copyright, all of these items may be used by anyone at all for any purpose they desire. This includes printed material, and also audio (old radio shows) and videos (old movies). All of these non copyright items may be copied and republished or resold. The material cannot be copyrighted by any person in their original state, but a new version of the item may be copyrighted if there have been significant changes made to the material.
Then in 1964 copyright laws were changed for the USA, and material published after that year remains in copyright for a very much longer period of time. There are actually certain exceptions to this with some publications up to the year 1978 which are in the public domain.
To avoid any possibility of copyright problems I personally will only republish material which was copyrighted before 1964, and which is now in the public domain, which can be proven by checking the publication and its author at the US copyright office, a job which can be completed online very simply.
My website Vintage Plans has available to everyone free copies of a selection of these old plans. This is an ongoing work and will undoubtedly take considerable time to finish. The simple fact is that it will very likely never be finished as new material continues to come to light continually from a number of sources.
I also intend to republish freely copies of plans, articles etc which date far back into the 1800s and even further than that. Many interesting and useful plans and articles etc are available from this time.
Check back with this blog and our website often and you will get much interesting material http://www.vintageplans.org. It is my hope that many of you will find a lot of interest in these plans and articles and plenty of items which will be of use to you. They are all free--so the price is not a problem is it?. Go to our website, and help yourself to the free PDF downloads you will find there. the
Take a look now at Vintage Plans and check out all the really interesting stuff that is totally free. You can if you wish leave your comments below or ask your question about anything.
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