PADI AOW Certification: A Really Dumb Question

[caruso]

understanding of dive table concepts

Dive tables?

 

[NAM001]

Dive tables?

exactly

 

[Efka76]

@Randallr

From my own experience AOW was just trying few different dives, which were really new to me: navigation (pretty basic skills), Deep (interesting to find out how you body reacts to deeper dive to 30 m), night. Wreck dive did not require any new skills as AOW dive does not include wreck penetration. UW naturalist - just ordinary dive.

It seems that you have pretty good experience and these AOW dives will not give you any additional skills, however, current world is driven by legal matters more and more. AOW, Nitrox and Deep specialty cards are required by dive shops / liveaboards in order to let you access deeper sites. For example, when I was doing liveaboard in Red sea and there was a wreck on 34 m depth, LOB people checked that our current certification allows us to dive to that depth. We were told that in case you are PADI AOW certified and do not have Deep specialty, you will not be allowed to dive that site.

 

[TMHeimer]

There it is. It's the LAW! Yeah and it's the LAW to completely stop at stop signs, and to pay taxes on every dollar you make, and to not drink an alcoholic beverage if underage, or partake in illegal recreational drug use, or hire a kid or illegal to do yardwork and pay them in cash, or urinate outdoors, or follow a gazillion other rules and regulations that govern modern society.

If you've ever driven 56 mph on the highway or failed to buckle your seatbelt or used your cellphone while driving (in a state that prohibits it), or played a game of poker for money, or crossed a street at a place other than a crosswalk, then you lack the credibility to make such a post.

Disagree. Agree with tursipos. Most of those things you mention don't result in directly effecting anyone else (obviously causing an accident while on the cell phone may be one exception). If you pee outdoors it may affect someone if they see you. You won't get a ticket going 56 in a 55 zone and probably won't hurt anyone. Then again you probably won't get a ticket going 7-10 miles over, according to what one cop told me. So that's a tough can of worms. As a published author, I don't want people Xeroxing my book. It directly takes money out of my pocket. In NS there are rarely any facilities at dive sites and usually nobody around. So, I have peed outdoors, yet feel I have the credibility to say copyright infringement is illegal.

 

[NAM001]

Many of the laws are really meaningless untill there is a legal battle and you have to be able to determine who did wrong if anyone. No one really is hot on giving tickets for cell phone use while driving,, but wait till you get into an accident and the phone is checked to find contributing factors.

 

[caruso]

Under the "fair use" defense, another author may make limited use of the original author's work without asking permission. Pursuant to 17 U.S. Code § 107, certain uses of copyrighted material "for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright."

 

[TMHeimer]

Under the "fair use" defense, another author may make limited use of the original author's work without asking permission. Pursuant to 17 U.S. Code § 107, certain uses of copyrighted material "for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright."

Well, I won't argue this as I'm not a lawyer. I have copied music at times for my Band classes due to the fact that there may be only 8 flute parts and my band may have 15 players. But, all of our music was bought first. That may be a legal grey area, I don't know. Criticism, comment, news reporting, and maybe research don't come across to me as purposely scamming me out of a Royalty. In some cases such exposure here may help sales. Not sure what is meant by "scholarship". These sort of things would not seem to be the case regarding purposely Xeroxing agency manuals, knowledge reviews, etc. when the agency may specifically require that every student has their own purchased copy.
There is a site where composers include their compositions. It specifically says these pieces are not copyright and viewers are encouraged to print them out. Not sure why these composers would do that, maybe for exposure? Of course, I went to town. But that site is a rarity. Unless for the reasons listed above, you can't just copy something that is copyright for your own personal use. That's stealing.