TI-Chips' Online

The July meeting of the TI-Chips was called to order, and the minutes from the June meeting were read. Les Kee was kind enough to advise me of the error in the June minutes. Les informed me that he was designing a reflective telescope rather than refractive, as was erroneously reported. Thank you, Les, for clearing that up for me.

Lin Shaw gave the treasurer's report, and he stated that there was no activity to report for the month of June. At this time Harry Hoffman turned in newsletter receipts for reimbursement. Harry reported that he mailed 42 copies of the June/July edition of the newsletter. Harry then requested that the club purchase a new black ink printing cartridge for his printer. Harry said this was necessary because he has to print quite a few rough drafts when preparing for publication of the TI-Chips' newsletter. Harry's request was unanimously approved.

John Parken was unable to attend this month. Therefore, there was no membership report. However, Matt Andel and I took this opportunity to renew our respective memberships for the coming year.

It was a pleasure to have Craig Getty attend our meeting. Craig is the Webmaster for Harry's Web site. Harry recommended the Chips confer an honorary membership to Craig in recognition for all of the work he has done in assisting Harry in creating TI-Chips' newsletter Web site. Harry's request was unanimously approved. Welcome to the TI-Chips, Craig. <!-- Webmaster's note: Many thanks to the club -->

Les Kee reported there was no activity in the club's library. However there was some discussion regarding the recording of our software library onto CDs. The subject of the discussion was copyright infringement. It was pointed out that there are three factors governing copyrights.

• First, registering a copyright with the Library of Congress is not required to make a valid copyright. However, registration of copyrights helps in the successful litigation of copyright infringement cases.
• Next, only embedded text and screen produced graphics are copyrightable in computer software. Software code is considered prior art, and is therefore not copyrightable.
• Finally, US copyrights are good for the life of the author plus 50 years. It was agreed that every effort would be made to avoid copyright infringement if and when the club's library is placed on CDs.

Harry and Craig initiated a discussions on several subjects during the meeting. First, we discussed the possibility of creating an electronic newsletter in the form of a PDF attachment for e-mail sent to the TI-Chips membership. Next, we talked about the e-mail services offered by YAHOO! (Yahoo! is able to provide e-mail services for multiple e-mail addresses.) Finally, Harry and Craig said they were working on creating an "In Memory" page for Harry's newsletter site. This would be a memorial page for all Cleveland area TIers who have died.

Jack Koryta won the 50:50 raffle. Congratulations, Jack.

-Glenn Bernasek

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