[smiler]

The way I see it is if I start a thread or contribute to somebody else's I am giving that information to the forum, ITS THEN OUT OF MY HANDS AND THE FORUM DOES WHAT IT WISHES WITH IT.

[filmer01]

A couple of other issues that I can see.

Getting  copyright permission is obviously more difficult if the member has died. Can their heirs do it, and how do we find them? Same goes for members who have drifted away over the last 10years.

The clue to the other problem is in the title of thing, it’s a forum, which involves multiple members commenting and adding to the initial post. Does the whole thread belong to the person who initiated it, as trying to get each contributor to consent would obviously be impossible, partly due to the first problem. Just consider the Slip Coaches thread!

No doubt other issues will be revealed, which makes it all the more important to salvage the forum in its present form.

[smiffy]

One of the problems is there are something like 800 members that were lost when the forum was taken offline. These members can't give any permission as they can no longer login.

I've been wondering what the copyright situation is regarding Wayback Machine - you can enter a URL for the KHF and find 170 snapshots taken between 2008 - 2019. The coverage is only partial, but there are a lot of posts that have been archived (including some from Bilgerat, complete with photographs).

[Bilgerat]

Dave, thank you for your kind offer. I think if getting in touch with Kyn doesn't work out, then if we copy the old Forum piece by piece, this will not only take a huge effort, but will cause other problems. I discussed this matter away from here with someone else who is an expert in these things. If we go ahead, we run a very real risk of the new Forum being blacklisted by Google for being a copy of the old one. There is also the issue of Copyright, which I'll need to do some research on.

Should Plan A not work out, then Plan B is going to have to be to create a totally new Forum from scratch and leave it to individual members to copy their own work across, or at least re-publish it on the new Forum.

We have until August of 2020 until the license for the current Forum domain runs out.I'm not sure if it renews automatically, in my experience, it won't unless the hosting agreement is renewed and a fee paid.

I know we all want our Forum back, but I think we're going to have to be patient for the time being.

[Dave Smith]

Having, over the years, submitted quite a few articles about the 2nd World War as " I was there", if anyone wishes to keep this history please feel free to do so. Is this all that is needed?

[smiffy]

If kyn has no further interest in maintaining or even being involved with this site anymore, I cannot see why she should not hand it over to those who want to see it continue. There may, of course, be something beyond her control which is preventing this from happening.

As for copyright, for posts for which no permission to copy has been obtained one solution could be to simply include direct links from any new site to the relevant thread or topic on the KHF. However, this would be dependent on the current site maintaining a presence, even if it's just read-only.

[Bilgerat]

You may be right Nemo and Lutonman, like I said, that was my understanding of the law and I'd need to do more research into the fiendishly complex field of copyright before committing to anything.

I'm hoping that it won't come to that.

[Nemo]

and/or the copyright owner (eg. the owner of the copyright of a posted image).

[Lutonman]

The only potential pitfall I can see is the issue of copyright. My understanding of the law though is that copyright laws only apply if material is copied for financial gain. The copyrights of each article are owned by the article's creator, so we really ought, where possible, to get the writer's permission to copy articles across to the new site. In which case, if any contributors are looking in on this thread, please give your permission to copy your items to the new site.

I don't believe that this is correct, just copying posts will infringe copyright unless the poster grants permission.

[shoot999]

Thank you for your kind offer Alec, it's much appreciated.

On a related note, I've put out an appeal on the Medway History Facebook group for anyone who is in contact with Kyn or Kev to ask them to get in touch with myself or any of the other Forum moderators. Time to wait and see.....

I see these guys    http://www.strangecargo.org.uk/?fbclid=IwAR3TUxJ1NM0Ie-SzAR1xZRaR5a8w2jINjBZ5rR-f6KM3KwiaOrC_GAMvAak are also trying to contact KHF to possible include some of the KHF content in a future guidebook. Worth mentioning this in any future messages to Kyn? It may appeal?

[Bilgerat]

Agree 100% Jim, which is why we're proposing what we are. Thank you for your offer of help.

At the moment, the proposal is definitely Plan B, but if we do have to go ahead with it, the task of copying everything over is certainly going to be monumental.

The only potential pitfall I can see is the issue of copyright. My understanding of the law though is that copyright laws only apply if material is copied for financial gain. The copyrights of each article are owned by the article's creator, so we really ought, where possible, to get the writer's permission to copy articles across to the new site. In which case, if any contributors are looking in on this thread, please give your permission to copy your items to the new site.

[jimawilliams]

As many of us would know life can get real tough at times and priorities change dramatically for people.  Kyn has created and run this incredible resource, which means so much in different ways to many, for so long.  It is simply just too good to loose and as a group I feel we should collectively do our best to preserve this resource for all in the future.
So happy to help out where I can from Australia
Cheers to all
Jim

[Bilgerat]

Thank you for your kind offer Alec, it's much appreciated.

On a related note, I've put out an appeal on the Medway History Facebook group for anyone who is in contact with Kyn or Kev to ask them to get in touch with myself or any of the other Forum moderators. Time to wait and see.....

[Invicta Alec]

I'm willing to help in whatever way I can.

Alec.

[Lutonman]

It seems a workable plan and we have a fair bit of time to transfer data if needed.

Perhaps we need to try and get Kyn's attention by a better bit of publicity, she seems to be ignoring emails, there is a facebook account and perhaps contact can be made via connections there or other methods say the newspaper. I'd rather she came along with us if at all possible its just her circumstances have made it impossible for her to continue.