On 11/03/2021 21:52, Tim Streater wrote:
On 11 Mar 2021 at 20:20:04 GMT, John Rumm
wrote:

On 11/03/2021 16:38, Jeff Layman wrote:

I can't see a way round that if it is considered commercially confidential.

You can't really argue that access to a part is commercially
confidential - the internal design of it perhaps.

Even access to a schematic and board view is not really confidential
since once you have access to the physical board, you can reverse
engineer the schematic.

Even on a multi-layer board? Well I could see GCHQ doing that, but a
repairer?

That's the problem, lack of a schematic makes it too much effort for a
repairer, but does not stop a pirate who wants to produce their own
copies and where the effort is worthwhile. Effectively there is no good
reason not to make schematics available.