Is there a place within this site to post service manuals?

inca

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This is a wonderful site for textual answers. It seems it would be a great idea for it to also house the service manuals so they can all be found in a central location. I have the Canon IP3000 service manual in PDF format.
 

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inca
it would be easier for it to be made available from your Email if you put it on your profile Menu.
Nifty-Stuff .com doesnt allow anyone to post PDFs, for a good reason.. ;)
 

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I'm assuming there may be problems with us hosting copies of the manuals, especially ones that aren't readily available online already... but I'm not sure. Anybody have any idea on the copyright issues around manuals, both the free ones you can download from the various websites and/or the ones that get passed around via email, etc?
 

inca

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If there is a concern about hosting them, how about an area where one can post links to them. This would be a very handy/useful resource. Simply create a new section on the board where people can post links to the manuals. "Directory of Manuals" or similar. This would greatly advance the "cause" of this website, making it easier for the layperson to keep more of these machines from going into the landfills sooner than necessary.
 

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nifty-stuff.com said:
I'm assuming there may be problems with us hosting copies of the manuals, especially ones that aren't readily available online already... but I'm not sure. Anybody have any idea on the copyright issues around manuals, both the free ones you can download from the various websites and/or the ones that get passed around via email, etc?
I believe Canon in particular are very keen to send out the cease and desist letters when anything like that gets hosted, or at least that was the situation back a few years back and with chips added, opaque carts, reset utilities, etc... increasingly hard to resolve I can't think of any reason why that would have changed.

My non-legal advice would be to steer clear to be honest Rob... Minefield in the making, much as it would be nice and/or make sense... :(
 

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It amazes me that we (the customers) put up with this nonsense from the printer companies. Ink costing ridiculous prices, perfectly good printers going to landfill, built in obsolescence and life limits on printers. It's a disgrace and there should be laws passed to prevent this insult to our planet and ourselves. I have a full repair manual for my printer a Canon MP500, have had it since I owned the printer and it is an eye opener. I figure the only way to fight back is to get the "right printer", get the service manual, share information about how to look after it....NEVER buy genuine manufacturers ink cartridges and use the same printer for as long as possible....certainly 3 times as long as the manufacturer intends you to!

Gosh I am becoming a printer anarchist. ;-)

P.S. But unfortunately I agree that putting the manuals online or links to them is simply asking for trouble.
 

inca

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Wouldnt the distinction be if you are hosting it or not? If people post links to where offsite they have the file hosted I dont see how that would be illegal. If that were true, in that case, Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc would be in trouble as posting links to whatever someone enters into the search box. In the US, in some jurisdictions, for example, there are dry (no alcohol allowed to be sold) towns. Its not illegal to tell someone they must go the next town over in order to be able to find liquor.

Furthermore, Ebay sellers are offering for sale many of the repair manuals. Searching on "canon service manual pixma" gets 137 results. My understanding was that Ebay was very strict about not posting illegal materials, and they allow sellers to post these. If this is allowed, and Yahoo, Google, etc post links to service manuals, to have a consolidated place on HERE to post the links can hardly be wrong.

The manufacturers might not like it, but they can't legally do anything if your site allows other to post links to the files elsewhere. They would have to take it up with wherever the files are hosted. Therefore, I recommend a separate forum board on here strictly for posting links to the actual service manuals. Then someone could go to that section to post and/or find the manuals they need, helping to keep more of these things going into the landfills when there could be a simple fix.
 

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Legally defensible or not, you have to be willing and able to defend yourself if you decide to do it, which means that you need resources, time, and yes, money ready in case.

eBay does indeed have strict rules that they apply willy nilly and I've found tend to do so when they're bored rather than consistently as the various "policy" warnings I've had over the years have shown.

Ultimately though, when it comes to doing it, my advice is that if you feel so strongly that it should be done, then do it yourself. It's easy to sit in judgement of what a third party site should do when it's not your neck (or other body part) on the line but it's amazing how clear it gets when you find yourself glancing up at the sharp end of a large axe.

T'is Robs call though... Haircut then Rob? Short?... VERY short? ;)
 

inca

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A google search will find many of the service manuals, but you have to wade through a lot of garbage to find them. This site offers a good many of them for free:

http://soft-manufaktura.ru/servman.html

29 manuals alone for Canon
 

inca

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I offer my recommendation, not a judgment. My intentions are to help improve the site's usefulness. It's a fantastic site with many responsive and helpful people.

The courts have previously ruled that a site is not responsible for what its owners post, because they cannot be expected to monitor thousands of posts from thousands of users. Perhaps hosting the files would be illegal, but I don't see how linking to them or allowing a forum for users to link to them would be illegal. If I'm wrong, feel free to correct free.

Before I came here, many people pointed me to this site. It's the most useful for printer assistance that I've found. My point is that it would have been better if I was able to find the service manuals sooner. A one-stop-shop would be more user-friendly.
 

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