----- Original Message ----- From: "Anthony Farr" Subject: Re: What do you think?
> > Don't a lot of countries have a ten year support rule for newly sold > products? I thought that was the reason the LX is still fully serviced by > Pentax but M and A series camera bodies are no longer serviced by them. It > wouldn't be hard for a clever legal mind to argue that "support" also means > the provision of consumables that the product requires. I notice that Fuji > and Kodak still sell film cameras, so I guess that commits them to selling > film for ten more years at least. But of those two companies, only Fuji > sells pro-grade film cameras, so perhaps only Fuji has any obligation either > legal or moral to keep pro-grade film on the shelves. > I did say "mostly goes away", you seem to have translated that into "completely goes away" in your post. Anyway, it's seven years in North America, I believe. But how is "support" defined? The market is full of products that have ceased to be supported in one way or another by their parent company. Canon stopped making lenses for the FD mount well short of ten years after discontinuing the cameras that used that mount. This would certainly qualify as no longer supporting the product, but I don't recall any court cases. Support could mean that they supply one, and only one film type (probably Max 800, under a new name) to keep things nice and legal, and this is what "mostly goes away" could mean. William Robb
