P

pat

Well Known Member
Does anyone have a digitized set of 8/8A prints and plans they would like to share? sell? microsoft windows OS, pdf preferred.
 
Veetail88 said:
Pat,

Others may chime in here, but this sounds like copyright infringement to me.
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Cant comment on the legal part of it, but its been done by more than a few builders. I would love to get my hands on a set of RV7 prints.
 
Copyright

Digitizing Van's plans and selling them is theft. Copying or digitizing them (after purchase) for you own use is a different story. I don't know if Van's has ever take anyone to task on this, but it is their right to do so.

From Wikipedia:

Copyright is the set of exclusive rights granted to the author or creator of an original work, including the right to copy, distribute and adapt the work. These rights can be licensed, transferred and/or assigned. Copyright lasts for a certain time period after which the work is said to enter the public domain. Copyright applies to a wide range of works that are substantive and fixed in a medium. Some jurisdictions also recognize "moral rights" of the creator of a work, such as the right to be credited for the work.

Copyright has been internationally standardized, lasting between fifty and one hundred years from the author's death, or a shorter period for anonymous or corporate authorship. Generally, copyright is enforced as a civil matter, though some jurisdictions do apply criminal sanctions.

John Clark ATP, CFI
FAA FAAST Team Member
EAA Flight Advisor
RV8 N18U "Sunshine"
KSBA
 
How about doing it yourself?

Might I suggest avoiding the legal issues of copying plans by doing the following:

Go to http://vansaircraft.com/cgi-bin/catalog.cgi?&browse=videos&product=ppset and order a set of preview plans for the RV8/8A ($55.00). When they arrive, take the plans to your local Kinko's or whatever copy center is in your area. Have them scan the document and convert them to PDF.

OR

It does look like you are already building so you already have a complete set of plans. Gather them up and take them to Kinko's. They can also scan the large drawings you already have.

You will avoid any legalities this way. You will have everything you need in electronic version. You will continue to support the company who is providing this opportunity to build a fantastic product. And, really wouldn't it be worth $75 - $100 to have the electronic copy of the plans you wish to study?
 
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I PDF'ed (I guess that is a verb now) the fuselage instructions for my 8 and found it very helpful to be able to search the instructions for a key word or phrase. I mentioned the utility of this to Doug a couple of years ago to see if he was interested in asking Van's for permission to make PDF versions of the instructions (not the drawings) available. He said he'd check into it; but I never heard back. I assumed he was too concerned about the legalities; which I can understand.

There was a recent Kitplanes article describing a guy's shop setup. Nice article and very nice shop. It was mentioned in the article that he had digitized the plans and the drawings. So, it is being done. I don't understand why Van's doesn't provide at least the instructions in electronic format. I can sort of understand not providing e-copies of the drawings. But, I am not sure what the problem would be with the instructions...
 
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agreed, very easy to DIY

New builder here, first post actually.. I did just that about a month back when I got my preview plans.

Actually did the instruction sets myself using a scansnap page scanner. All sections of the 8's preview plans took less than 10 minutes to scan in total, then another 20 mins to let acrobat do OCR and now my preview plans are searchable, which is very nice as I'm trying to really understand them and finding all instances of a part's use is very conducive to this.

Another $30 at a local copy store to do the 11x17 preview plans and I can carry everything around on an iPad.

I've not done the full scale plans that come with the emp kit, but the previews are more than good enough to work with and annotate with my questions/thoughts, and far less pricey to get digital than the big ones would be.

Michael

Too new to have a signature, but building an 8 with showplanes fastback
Current status is: empennage almost complete, wings and fuse and fastback all waiting shipping
 
The idea came from kitplanes article

thought it would be neat to have but Im so far along with the build that its not really necessary. Didnt realize how easy it could be done at local copy center. Not looking to skirt any copy laws either, certainly believe in giving credit ($$$) where its due. thanks for responses, all good.
 
Office Depot

I had my RV-7 preview plans (11x17) scanned at Office Depot. Less than $5 including a cd and took about 10 minutes. That was 2 years ago.
 
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