> If you have some equipment surely it would reasonable to have the > manuals for it. > How the manuals are obtained is open to debate but not if you have the > right to own them.
I would agree (although doubtless lawyers wouldn't :-)). A problem, though is when a service or technical manual was an optioanl accessory, which had to be paid for separately. In that case it is going to be very hard to prove you had a right to own it. And yet the manufacturers can no longer supply it, and you want to fix the <whatever>. A case in point. I have a 1980s colour graphics terminal here. The user manual was supplied with it (and I am pretty sure I have the original), the service manual was an option and I am pretty sure the previous owners never had it. But of course I need the schematics, etc to sort out an EHT fault in it. In this particular case there is no problem. It's a Tektronix and comes under (AFAIK) the agreement posted on bitsavers. And bitsavers had the 2 volumes of service manual available. So I do not feel there is anything wrong in this case. But for other manufacturers it could be a problem. -tony
