Firstly, I do not pretend to be an expert on copright law. Some (or all) of the following may be wrong, but it is as I understand it. It is, of course, much simplified.
Under UK law (to which this site is subject) all documents are automatically copright as soon as they are produced. The copyright remains with the writer unless sold to another party or produced for payment for another party. ie if you write something as part of your employment the copyright is owned by your employer – not by you. Any company buying another automatically buys all copyrights owned by that company. Copright lasts for 70 years from production.
Everything printed is copyright. Drawings, book covers, PCB layouts, web pages, the lot.
OK, this is the (civil) law. I am, quite knowingly, breaking it.
This is what I offer in defence of my actions:
If I wait another 50 years before showing the NASCOM to the world it will probably be of no use at all to anyone (it isn’t much use now…). The 8-bit processors will only be words in specialised history books. No-one will understand the old circuit diagrams. And I will probably be dead! However, at the moment 8-bit processors are still of use for educational purposes. This is what I want to achieve. If reading the contents of this site encourages one person to take up logic design as a career I will be happy. The computers in most homes now are particularly unsuitable for this purpose. Did your PC come with circuit diagrams and a BIOS listing? Have you ever even heard of a 60mA current loop to drive a paper punch? Does it matter?
Of course, these old computers are also a part of our British heritage. OK, so in historical terms they are not even officially antiques, but in the land of computers things move so much faster. Early machines are soon forgotten.
Of course, I don’t want anyone to take legal action against me, although if you hold the copyright on any of the items on this site you are quite entitled to do so. All I ask, is that if you have a complaint against me you contact me before your solicitor and I will remove the offending material as soon as I can. You can email me at
mick-AT-mixtel.co.uk
(change the "-AT-" to the usual @ symbol… I’m trying to reduce spam).
I don’t really think that anyone WILL object. Even the NASCOM circuit diagrams are largely based on manufacturers data sheets which are or were freely available. All the computers on this site have been "dead and buried" for at least 14 years. I doubt if anyone will be interested in using any of this information in a new computer. It is only of historical interest really. Even if you built one, what would you run on it? There were no major programs ever written for these machines (although some expanded machines ran CP/M).
I have run web searches on several search engines for all references to Nascom-1, Nascom-2, Gemini Microcomputers, Nascom Microcomputers, Richard Beal (the writer of NASBUG – not the Netscape man, I asked him) and Kerr Borland (front man of Nascom). All these drew a blank so far as finding any possible copyright holders went. I am *still* actively looking…
So, finally, If I have caused a problem with copyright infringement I am very sorry. I have tried not to and it is all in a good cause!
(Of course, under the same law, I hold the copyright on this www site and all information contained herin. You may not publish any part of it in any form whatsoever or on any media whatsoever without my specific written permission to do so.)
I will allow links to this site. I would appreciate being notified though. If you wish to create a link please link to the first page only – all others are subject to change without notice.
nascom.info 