[Admin Note] RULES CLARIFICATION & Addition

[SuperSleeper]

Howdy folks,

A while back, Apnea Board was threatened with a lawsuit from a major CPAP manufacturer for posting links to copyrighted Clinician Setup Manuals (also called "Setup Manuals" or "Provider Manuals").

Apparently, major CPAP manufacturers don't like you (the patient) finding out how to change your own CPAP pressures. So, they "came after" us legally.

In an attempt to stop the distribution of this "secret knowledge", they claimed we were in violation of their copyright by distributing their "copyrighted Clinician Manuals".  They ordered us to "cease and desist" from hosting or linking to their manuals here on Apnea Board, or they would go to court to force us to stop and demand payment for "punitive damages".

After consulting with legal counsel, we came up with a "work-around" to this issue.  We started to distribute the copyrighted manuals to individual patients, via private email, for their own "educational use only".  We did this by way of using the "Fair Use" sections of U.S. Copyright Law, which allows for limited distribution of copyrighted works as long as it's primarily for "educational purposes".  The law is much more detailed than what I just wrote (of course), but that's the jist of it, and that's why we have to do it this way.

So, this is why we just added a short section to Rule #2, which states:

In order for Apnea Board to remain compliant with U.S. Copyright Law, you will not attach or post a link to any CPAP Clinician Manual (also known as a "Provider Manual" or "Setup Manual"). Instead, please direct members to the Clinician Setup Manuals Page where they can request a manual via private email.

This rule will begin to be enforced effective immediately.

Thanks for your understanding.