"Big Brother" of regulators

[thethumper]

Here's an email I received from the powers that be @ Poseidon. Have a look & this.



Hi!



We have discovered that you have the Poseidon Service manual available on your website. This is not a good thing because it can make non experienced people with no service experience to start doing service on their own products. This is of course not safe for the user of the products.



Therefore we kindly ask you to remove the Poseidon service manual from your website.


Vänligen / Best regards
Poseidon Diving Systems
Mattias Sahlin
Sales Scandinavia
Tel: 0046-(0)31-7342900
Fax: 0046-(0)31-7342901
Mob: 0046-(0)707-260626
mattias.sahlin@poseidon.se
www.poseidon.se

 

[MikeFerrara]

It's about what I'd expect.

 

[Diversauras]

I agree with Poseidon, and since they are the copyright holders I expect they have a fairly strong position on which to make the request. You have put them at risk in our legal system, not you...

 

[Northeastwrecks]

Agreed. Without debating the merits of whether people should be allowed access to service manuals, etc..., the author, or more likely the manufacturer, holds the copyright in the manual. They hold the exclusive right to copy the manual or prepare derivative works based upon the manual (which would apply if, for example, you scanned the hard copy into a pdf).

Moreover, if the work was properly registered (or, in some instances, if it is a Berne Convention work), the author is entitled to statutory damages for infringement.

I wouldn't look at this as a "Big Brother" issue. Its important to remember that the manufacturer owns the rights to the manual. They are merely policing and monitoring the uses of their intellectual property.

You can also look at it this way. If people want access to the manual, then they should buy it.

 

[ElectricZombie]

I would take it off the site, but distribute it privately to those who ask.

 

[Genesis]

of the commonly-replacable components (e.g. O-rings)

Post THAT.

They hold no copyright over YOUR expression.

If you do it in an intelligent fashion you can provide BETTER than their "exploded views", in that you can show step-by-step disassembly and assembly pictures.

Further, it will totally screw them in terms of their overpriced service kits for those who download or view it, as now, with the exception of seats, people can service them without going to the manufacturer for parts. Seats do not need to be replaced with each service, contrary to dive-shop nonsense. (If they're sealing properly, IP is stable, there is no evident physical damage on close inspection - they're fine.)

There is nothing wrong with you taking a picture of a product and posting it, provided you give proper credit to the manufacturer - whether its in pieces or assembled.

This is how the Clymer's of the world do their stuff (e.g. automotive, jetskis, etc) and its perfectly legal.

(Include, of course, appropriate disclaimers that these are your observations, are not approved by the manufacutrer, etc.)

 

[Diversauras]

Genesis once bubbled...

Further, it will totally screw them in terms of their overpriced service kits

 

[Northeastwrecks]

Genesis once bubbled...
of the commonly-replacable components (e.g. O-rings)

Post THAT.

They hold no copyright over YOUR expression.

If you do it in an intelligent fashion you can provide BETTER than their "exploded views", in that you can show step-by-step disassembly and assembly pictures.

Further, it will totally screw them in terms of their overpriced service kits for those who download or view it, as now, with the exception of seats, people can service them without going to the manufacturer for parts. Seats do not need to be replaced with each service, contrary to dive-shop nonsense. (If they're sealing properly, IP is stable, there is no evident physical damage on close inspection - they're fine.)

There is nothing wrong with you taking a picture of a product and posting it, provided you give proper credit to the manufacturer - whether its in pieces or assembled.

This is how the Clymer's of the world do their stuff (e.g. automotive, jetskis, etc) and its perfectly legal.

(Include, of course, appropriate disclaimers that these are your observations, are not approved by the manufacutrer, etc.)

Just make sure that you take out a nice insurance policy when you write your own repair manual. Because if someone gets hurt because you missed a step or failed to explain something properly, your the one who is potentially on the hook. Even better, don't be fooled into thinking that you can disclaim your liability by putting something on your site.

 

[Genesis]

burr under the saddle?

Would you buy a car if you couldn't get parts, or service information, or get it fixed anywhere except from the selling dealer?

No?

Then why will you buy scube equipment under the same terms?

Oh, because you "have to"?

No you don't.

Among other places, Airspeed Press has schematics for most of the common regulators in their book. I assume they didn't "license" them, but rather took them apart and did their own - for the same reason I noted above, and because if the manufacturers could have stopped the folks over there, they would have. I bought the book more for the schematics than anything else.

As for O-rings, its easy to come up with equivalents. I have the table for the SP Mk10 - which I came up with on my own. And oh yeah, EPDM O-rings are cheap. Very cheap. The entire set of O-rings in a Mk10 costs me something like forty-three cents - all in EPDM, which is nicely O2-compatable and has better tear and extrusion resistance than Viton.

With them being that cheap I am encouraged to tear them down regularly, which is better all the way around. My usual teardown schedule is every six months - since it costs me a whole half a buck for the parts.

BTW, I've found no wear problems, nor have I had any trouble with leaks, going this route. Despite people's claims of doom and gloom, I've yet to expire.

My reg, my O-ring suppliers, my equivalents table, and my azz if I'm wrong and it locks up on me or blows a seal at 100'.

Its called personal responsibility - something that many people lack these days, and something that an entire profession seems to exist solely to derogate adults through infantilism - for their own profit, of course.

(Yes, Posideon has the right to control distribution of their copyrighted material. That doesn't mean that they should - that you can do a thing doesn't mean that you should do that thing.)

 

[MikeFerrara]

Just don't buy regs from companies that won't sell parts or manuals.