In article JAIRc.20267$Uh.15005@fed1read02, (Ed Price) writes:
|
| "Fred" wrote in message
| ...
| I just checked my yahoo account and this came in. I replied telling
| them
| that I believe service documentation is required to be made available to
| the
| public by US law. I will post the next reply I get.
|
|
| And to what do you attribute your strange legal insights?

I wonder if he is thinking about car service manuals? There might be some
requirement there, though the manufacturers have managed to reduce the
information content significantly and replace it with flow charts.

| Safety concerns totally trump repairability. Under no circumstances will a
| company legally expose themselves by telling you anything about how to muck
| about in the innards of their product.

Sony used to be very good about this, selling service manuals for anything to
anybody. I have service manuals for every Sony product I've owned (TVs, VCRs,
older DSS receivers, etc.) and they actually have schematics. I also had no
trouble (though it was slightly more complicated than with Sony) getting a
service manual for a Pioneer LaserDisc player and (I think) some Panasonic
VCRs. Recently I was unable to get a Sony service manual for a newer DSS
receiver, though, and I'm afraid this may be a trend. The sales rep seemed
rather puzzled about it and was supposed to do some research and get back to
me, but he didn't. I think the problem may be more the DMCA and friends than
injury liability concerns. The current legislative environment effectively
requires a lot of consumer electronics to be tamper-proof black boxes in order
to protect the new rights of content providers.

Dan Lanciani
ddl@danlan.*com