On 5/20/2010 2:05 AM, Saandy Eban wrote:
> I don't think it's envy.
> if a manufacturer puts on the market- especially a consumer product
> the relevant documentation should be made available to the owners:
> Panasonic, Canon and others make theirs available free on the 'net!
> after all, it seems to me nobody is really going to try and duplicate
> Heath equipment for sale! Why should I pay again for the manual of my
> SB104?
> Alex 4Z5KS
Agreed, but there is a difference between what is expected, what is
responsible, and what is legal.
If the manufacturer were still in business the manuals might be for sale
as some are, or they might now be available free on the Internet as most
are for ham gear. Remember that when they sold those rights manuals were
all printed. I have most now in digital format...although I do have the
paper manuals as well.
So, selling the copyrights for the manuals to a responsible individual
might have been both the responsible and proper approach when they were
sold. That he provides high quality manuals says a lot. OTOH many, if
not most who have the original manuals are quire likely to be willing to
provide digital copies if they have the equipment. Simple manuals are
easy to copy, but bound ones are not, and not many are willing to
dismantle a good quality, bound manual to photocopy it. Also there is
the question of quality. Some of those manuals we get are pretty poor
quality. Look at the quality of the original QSTs when they became
available in digital. OTOH some of the originals were in pretty poor
shape, but a few were REALLY bad! It's what they had to work with at the
time.
Me? when it comes to a manual, magazine, or book in digital I expect it
to be as good a quality as the original when new. That makes for some
pretty large files that are usually of chapter size rather than book
size. A great example here would be the ARRL Handbook and Antenna
Handbook. Then there are the Icom, Yaesu, and Kenwood manuals. Unlike
printed manuals they have the original in digital and it only costs
server space and time which is probably a very small percent of their
server space.
Those are the kinds of quality I expect, but then again, computers are,
or were, my profession and I have to remember that most people are
computer users" and do not have the skills to provide that kind of
quality, so I am indeed thankful for those who have provided those
manuals on BAMA ...as long as I can read them. <:-)) Not all meet that
criteria, but still I view BAMA as a great resource and service,
particularly when you consider it is all volunteer.
OTOH although I may wish Heath had the foresight to see what we have
today, they did provide a service to us by salvaging some money from a
failing, or failed company as well as providing a source for quality
manuals for their now out of production equipment.
73
Roger (K8RI)
>
> On Thu, May 20, 2010 at 2:42 AM, VAN K7VS <WA7FAB@cdsnet.net
> <mailto:WA7FAB@cdsnet.net>> wrote:
>
> Yup, that's exactly what happened and I don't really understand
> why some
> individuals are so negative about an opportunistic person trying
> to make a
> few bucks. I guess it's envy. The fellow that purchased the
> rights has a
> website selling clean and complete copies of Heath manuals. He
> does a very
> nice job and is a neat guy to boot. Van, K7VS
>
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>
>
> --
> Saandy
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