----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, December 21, 2001 11:46
PM
Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Manned
Submersibles Book
Shipmates,
Please let me give you an update on the Busby Book. I have been
negotiating behind the scenes with the Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVO) for
over a year now. As far as copyright goes, NAVO's position is that the
book it is in the public domain.
At one point they offered to
provide a link on their own web page to my website, if I would be willing to
put the document on my own website. But they later decided that the
document is so out of date that they no longer want to support it in any way.
But they encouraged me to make it available to the public.
Why
has it taken me 18 months to report all that to psubs? Well,
establishing the public domain issue only took a few months. But, more
interestingly, my interactions with various Navy personnel over the months led
me down an unexpected path. After digging into this issue for me, one of
the librarians indicated that he had heard something about a misplaced
shipment of orginal, virgin 1976 Busbys.
After much sleuthing,
and many months, they found a shipment of well over 100 unopened Busbys in a
NASA library in Mississippi. I expect the entire lot to be delivered to
me within 30 days. When I receive then, I will make arrangements to
distribute them to psubs members. The books will be free, but I will
probably have to charge $5.00 or something like that for shipping.
Here is the deal I cut with the Navy. They will give me all of
the books for free, with the understanding that I will hand them out for free,
and that those who recieve them will not sell them, either. So if, as I
begin to distribute them, I start to see a rash of "excellent condition"
Busbys for sale on e-bay, I will be forced by the terms of my agreement to
cease distribution. This is an honor system thing.
I had hoped
to make these books available as a Christmas present for psubs, but it looks
like they will not arrive until after the first of the year. Please do
not contact the library yourself...it has taken me 18 months to set up this
deal, and I don't want anything to upset it at the last minute.
When
the books arrive, I will announce them. I did not want to share this
informatin until I had the books in my basement, but since folks are asking, I
thought I would share the good news. It isn't over until the fat lady
sings, but my NASA contact sent me an e-mail just yesterday saying that my
boxes (our boxes) have been moved from the library to the shipping department.
So please just sit tight on the Busby issue for a month.
Doug
Farrow