IAFM copyright issues.

[palindrome]

I did some more digging. Under international law (the Berne Convention), these works are almost certainly considered copyrighted. They are "orphan works," but that doesn't obviate their copyright status.

Berne came into effect in 1989. It is possible that scans of magazine pages published prior to 1989 would be considered forfeited, not orphaned. But the PDFs from the Wayback machine were, by definition, published after Berne, and hence are still copyrighted.

So most likely either the publisher needs to be located and permission obtained, or you're just going to have to decide whether or not the risk of getting caught by a vengeful copyright owner later is worth it.

[Yale]

Yet another complication would be translating the instructions. No matter how useful these translations would be for those of us who do not speak Hebrew, it's hard to imagine how they could be copyrighted if they were unofficial. And even if they were approved by the copyright owners of the models, would the translation copyrights belong to the translators, or would the original model copyrights cover the translations, too? As difficult as it may be to puzzle out model assembly without instructions, I suspect that determining all these copyright issues is a greater problem still.

[sparrowhawk]

I just had a look at the site acessible by waybackmachine.
I recognized a lot of former Wilhelmshaven / Moewe Verlag kits (partly repainted) that still were sold in about 2008 by the original publisher at the Intermodellbau modeling fair in Dortmund / Germany. So copyright should still apply.
Probably same thing with other kits I recognized: Those were Maly Modelarze kits. Maybe a bit older and from socialist days, but MM still exists and has published kits until at least 2012, so I can´t imagine they declared those as abandonware. German copyright lasts for 70 years, this means every thing originally published in Germany after WWII is still copyrighted.

[amoscarmel]

Well, regardless of all the rhetoric in here sfw had already posted that site here (I mean no malice sfw) so as the saying goes, the cat is already out of the bag. I was not planning selling any of them, my concern was giving them away. I'm still can't understand how the person who is selling them on ebay hasn't got into trouble yet.

[amoscarmel]

Another issue here guys, the copyright act of Israel is similar to that of the USA and most western countries. (I know as I have done an assignment on that for university). However, I haven't seen anything regarding a situation like we're discussing here.

[papermodelfan]

I have seen old IAF and Israel Navy magazine paper models for sale on eBay from time to time, and have bought them from several sellers, sometimes for very good prices. They are old, a bit yellowed and the paper is of poor quality - in other words, they are originals. There is absolutely nothing wrong with selling originals. Some of the IAF models are reprints of Wilhelmshaven models, some are repaints (the Seahawk is repainted as part of the Indian Navy, for example). And some are by other designers, including some very crude designs. Moshe is the expert in this, and shared a lot of information on this Forum a few years ago.

Most of the original WHV models on which many of the IAF models were based are still for sale from Jade-Verlag (new name for that company) here: Papermodels, Cardmodels, Modelkits, Wilhelmshavener Modellbaubogen, Wilhelmshaven, Bastelbogen, Papiermodelle, Kartonmodellbau, Kartonmodelle, Architektur, Schiffe, Flugzeuge A few like the English Electric Lightning P1B, have been further edited and republished in a new version by Jade. That makes the IAF version like a fly in amber - a fossil shaped by the original design.

[papermodelfan]

I also recently learned that a number of JF Schreiber models and WHV models were reprinted in Israel, under license. Just found on eBay a splendid antique 5 page JFS Interplanetary 3 stage rocket from the 50's in Hebrew, long unavailable for love or money, along with an Israreli version of the JFS Hawker Hunter, and a Stalin tank, that looks like the old WHV model. Currently, check out item #252151924884 for a El Al repaint of the WHV Brittania 310, and item #252126321911 for a repaint of the WHV Sikorsky S-55 helicopter published by the AVIRO company .

[amoscarmel]

Originally Posted by Yale

Yet another complication would be translating the instructions. No matter how useful these translations would be for those of us who do not speak Hebrew, it's hard to imagine how they could be copyrighted if they were unofficial. And even if they were approved by the copyright owners of the models, would the translation copyrights belong to the translators, or would the original model copyrights cover the translations, too? As difficult as it may be to puzzle out model assembly without instructions, I suspect that determining all these copyright issues is a greater problem still.

Actually I contacted some of the Polish publishers (Maly, Gpm etc) regarding translations of their products' instruction books. The consensus was "Yeah go right ahead we don't mind, as long as you don't charge for it" type of an answer, (I have it on my email), they also pointed out to me that some of their products have been already translated and gave me the link too alas they weren't many.