[sdiy] - Service Manual Project -

[Rainer Buchty]

On Tue, 22 May 2007, Andre Majorel wrote:

>The bean counter / legal department mentality is such that most will 
>not give you permission on general principles. But most won't bother 
>suing you either.

An answer like "well, we actually don't care about that old stuff 
anymore" could be enough...

>Yes, I know, all care but not responsibility. But honestly, I've had 
>data sheets and manuals in full sight on my page for years so at least 
>I practise what I preach. :-)

A friend of mine scanned the schematics of his Philips TV (I found it 
already amazing that by Y2K a company was delivering schematics together 
with the manual...), uploaded it to some anonymous Geocities site where 
it was downloaded every now and then -- after a couple of weeks that 
site was shut down by Philips' request...

I love the idea of a central repository. But the one who's taking the 
responsibility must take into account that companies/lawyers change 
their mind... Just like Roland did. Or, depending on the country, might 
play nasty tricks like the "Abmahnung" in Germany (some sort of legal 
notice -- whoever notices that you are infringing someone's rights -- or 
offend some law like missing masthead on commercial websites -- could 
send you such a notice and demand monetary compensation for this very 
act; a game which is especially played by fishy lawyers).

Of course, there's one thing which could be done (at least for service 
manuals): redraw the schematics, redraw all diagrams/pictures, retype 
the text. Then copyright is not violated.

Rainer

(How the about the Schematic Underground Network -- SUN :)