Juergen Haible Memorial Fund will be closed

[Harry_W]

After my notification of Juergen's early passing in this forum, I had received many messages and posts where people expressed their will to support the family and requested a JH Memorial Fund.

Therefore Birgit followed my advice to open an extra memorial fund account, and also a paypal account later on for people from abroad.

Meanwhile it turned out that the few donations on the fund are nearly devoured by the account maintenance fees and that it makes no sense to keep the fund up.

I am of course a little disappointed that we somehow "missed the momentum" and that the expected help - indicated by so many in advance - stayed away... After all, it had been me who had urged Birgit to do all this account stuff (she had to visit several banks to find a rather cheap one), besides her struggling with authorities and her caring for the kids.

Anyway, I wish to say a big "Thank you" to all of you who let their words become actions and showed their solidarity by donating to Juergen's family! It is great to see how Juergen was respected and honoured "around the globe" by people of whom we did not even know their faces or their real names before.

As far as the continuation of Juergen's PCB business is concerned, there is nothing new to tell. The windmills of the authorities are turning slowly...

Best regards,
Harry_W

[jumunius]

Hi Harry, has the window indeed closed? Sorry I did always mean to contribute a very modest sum but missed the momentum, as you would say, and can't even say I remember where to find the info about where to contribute. If the fund is still available, could I recommend that you set a drop dead date (a week from now, end of the month, whenever) and post that notification, reiterating details of how to contribute? It might pick up a few stragglers like myself?

Also, as JH himself once reminded me, posting in response to an original thread can be a more effective way of getting attention than posting a new thread. If you posted this same info to the main thread about JH's passing, many people who are following the thread might get the notice and finally get around to posting some money.

Hope this message isn't too late to be useful. Also, thank you for everything you have done mediating between JH's family and the board.

[ach_gott]

For me it was all about the $40 bank transfer fee. It just didn't make sense to give when the bank would take ~50% what I could give. I'll happily give to the Paypal-based memorial fund.

Edit: Was there a Paypal fund already announced? If so, I missed it completely.

[jumunius]

[ach_gott]

[Harry_W]

Sorry for my late reaction. I didn't check e-m.com for a while...

I'm not sure if the paypal thing is still working.

AFAIK the basic account that was related to Birgit's paypal account WAS the JH Memorial Fund. I.e., if Birgit already closed the fund, she also closed the paypal account "simultaneously".

I will check that...

And juminus and ach_gott, thank you very much for your support.

[fiveman]

Fact is I have a couple hundred dollars worth of boards i want to buy right now and there is a pent up demand for his stuff. There are people who are willing to carry on for JH right now.

There should licensing money out there for his family. His business stopping cold is understandable for a short period of time but with people like Bridechamber and Elby Designs and somebody in Europe it should be up and running again. Regulations notwithstanding, the only difficulty is in the EU, they could be happening and AU and US now. If there is a probate issue, common sense dictates some executor does something.

If someone made boards in each hemisphere and sold them the prices would go down from the original prices but the volume would go way up. A handful of cash from US sales unencumbered by EU nonsense would do them a serious solid for that.

JH took his time with things but I don’t believe for a minute that he would want his work to come to a grinding halt and the consequences thereof.

[KnobHell]

I'm chomping at the bit as well for a few pcbs

Len

[patricef]

I'll be interested in buying the Main board and BDD board for the Subtle chorus project. This is just for personal project, but I'm willing to pay licensing fees if required.

[Harry_W]

Hello fiveman and all the others,

This is a crosspost of an answer I posted before in a different thread:

I guess there is some confusion or misunderstanding about the legal issues connected with JH's pcb and their sale.

It does not (and never did) depend on the will of the Haible family that the boards are not available right now. If so, they would have allowed me (or someone else who would be willing to do the job) to start the selling and send the PCBs to everyone who made a request (we have registered already virtually hundreds of such requests).

It is also not a question of license fees or licensing itself. There is, as far as I know German law, no possibility to protect technical designs like schematics and pcbs, so if someone wants to clone Juergen's inventions, feel free to do so. If I ask you NOT to do this, it is because of respect to Juergen's life work, but I (ot the family) have no means to prevent you from doing so.

It is all about the German law (and the legal issues connected with Juergen and Birgit's divorce process). Birgit does not (and will probably never) have any ownership with Juergen's business and the existing pcbs or designs. These properties count as values of Juergen's heritage. If we started to sell property out of this heritage (and the legal authorities got aware of it - which is difficult to avoid because of all the customs, taxes... involved), Birgit could be filed for defalcation or concealment by the state.

Probability is that soon a trustee will be installed by these authorities, somebody who would care for the heritage for the sake of the children until their legal age. That trustee could then decide that the sale of pcbs could be resumed.

[loss1234]

sounds like a bureaucratic nightmare!
its a crime that the pcbs cant be sold to provide for the family and to keep all the hard work he did going.

[Harry_W]

Hello to all,

Just a life sign from me...

I had some very hard months of work recently, and virtually no time for anything else. Thist is my first return to e-m.com since September, but to make it short, there have been no changes yet in the situation of Juergen's family.

It has now been about one year since the early passing of Juergen; I thought it would be worth a short note.

But nothing is lost for the DIY community in terms of PCBs; the boards are still here and safe , but still unavailable...

I promise to visit this forum more often again, just to keep you informed.

Best regards,
Harry

[diablojoy]

thank you Harry for the update.

[Masuto]

Any news on JH's matter?
It is very very sad... He was such a great mind.
I enjoy my mam resonator/resinator...it was based on JH's stuff.
Once i put it up on ebay to check how much it would fetch and it came up to 200+ euros.
It is a disgrace his children and relatives cannot earn a penny from his inventions and pcbs.
Stupid european laws
RIP J Haible

[elektromeister]

I also just read about this. I did not know him personally, but though heard the name. I searched the web and found this site, but it might be somebody different?

https://www.xing.com/profile/Juergen_Haible2

[LFLab]

Could be him, but if it is, it is obviously outdated.

Still, a shame that none of his legacy will be beneficial to his kids. I wonder what the exact legal matter is, cannot help but wonder if there is a problem with selling the PCB's and getting his kids some money.
If he didn't arrange anything, and he was divorced, everything goes to the kids. If he did arrange a will, it wouldn't take two years to exercise it. Not saying, just saying.

Edit:
Just read Harry's Jan2014 update, apparently things are moving but slowly.
German law is pretty quirky though, you do get the bill for the funeral, even when you are not a beneficiary, odd.