John Woodgate wrote:
I read in sci.electronics.design that Chris
wrote
(in .com) about
'Copyright on HP service manuals', on Fri, 22 Apr 2005:

An important point that's being neglected here is that these manuals

are intellectual property which has been copyrighted to make sure
the
fruits of that work goes to the owners.

Absolutely NOT!!! There is no objection whatsoever to legitimate
defence
of copyright.

What is NOT acceptable is to use copyright to deny ALL access to
legacy
data.

IIRC, the Sherlock Holmes stories are still just in copyright. Would
it
be reasonable for the estate of the author to assert the right to
prohibit the use of the words 'Sherlock Holmes' in any context?
--
Regards, John Woodgate, OOO - Own Opinions Only.
There are two sides to every question, except
'What is a Moebius strip?'
http://www.jmwa.demon.co.uk Also see http://www.isce.org.uk

Hi, Mr. Woodgate. Very respectfully, excessively long copyright
protection is a problem, particularly the Sonny Bono Copyright Term
Extension Act in the States, which extended copyrights to 75 to 95
years in the case of corporate copyrights, or 70 years after the death
of the author. That was another act of blatant pandering by Congress,
and it pushes right up against the copyright clause in Article I, Sec.
8 of the Constitution:

"To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for
limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their
respective Writings and Discoveries"

75 to 95 years isn't a "limited time" by my reading.

Since I got burned many years ago, I've never purchased a used
instrument without docs included or available from another source. And
in the last ten years, I've almost always been able to find the
instrument manuals I need from one legal source or another. I admit
that the price of a manual has affected my decision to buy or not once
or twice (the OP's manual costs $75 USD from one vendor), but I don't
see Agilent as actively prohibiting anyone from getting the
information. If they were doing that, they would be trying to buy up
the manuals and take them off the market.

Agilent obviously has an interest in drumming up sales, and if I were
them, I wouldn't be making too much of an effort to get potential
customers to scrounge and repair something I sold 25 years ago. The
real problem, of course, is that the manuals are not free in the age of
the internets. Well, so it goes.

I guess I'm picky about this stuff. When I get responsibility for an
instrument, I'll see that we get the docs. All manuals have to be
filed and signed out. And it really isn't much of a problem to me. I
guess my priorities are different, because I'm willing to pay for my
pleasures. Just a cost of doing business. ;-)

Good luck
Chris