"Winfield Hill" -edu wrote in
message ...
Stepan, wrote...
HP is enforcing their copyright over manuals, even for old
unsupported equipment. Look at this:
http://bama.sbc.edu/images/Letter%204-18-05.pdf
I see the BoatAnchor Manual Archive public-service site has
complied, http://bama.sbc.edu/hp.htm removing masses of valuable
documentation for ancient hp instruments from public availability.
That letter from Agilent's counsel is going to bring a massive
response from me as director of a Harvard University research
laboratory, directed to the relevant authorities at Agilent to
get the policy changed. It's dramatically counter-productive to
their own business interests, and it's manifestly unfair to the
owners of old HP / Agilent equipment who for one reason or another
no longer have an operating or service manual, and who cannot get
one from Agilent. For Agilent to close them off from a solution
to their problem is to render their bought and paid-for equipment
useless. It also means Agilent is capriciously denying the implied
warranty of merchantability for their older products; the product
can hardly do what it is supposed to do if the owner doesn't know
what button to push, or how to interpret the panel reading. And
it means Agilent is denying the owners' right to his own self-help
in repairing something he purchased fair and square. Moreover, it
takes a big step toward removing from the public weal the value of
old instruments, no longer manufactured, which in many cases are
not replaced by newer instruments performing the same function.
Agreed. What is it about lawyers? These land sharks have this
mentality that if their corporation doesn't say NO to absolutely
everything - that if even one teeny-weeny yes gets out, that sheer
pandemonium will result.
As a result, counsel recommends (and usually gets their way) that any -
even the smallest - violation be immediately stopped. One example.
http://www.elvislounge.com/barrykoltnow.html It's truly shameful.
Another point. Because of corporate bullying of copyright infringement,
the price of manual often exceeds the price of the used equipment it
belongs to. So sellers buy scrap not for the value of the equipment,
but for the manuals they contain.
--
Thanks,
- Win