68 ford, merc, coug service book

[rocketeater]

I was wondering what the general consensous is on seeing if anyone wanted a copy of the '68 shop book in PDF format?

 

[rjw]

Rocketeater,

That CD is available on ebay nearly all the time.

Richard

 

[darb]

What price would you be offering it at?

I do see it on Ebay all the time - I'm sure if you gave it away for free and added some sort of website link to other mustang products it would be a pretty good advertising tool.

 

[rocketeater]

I have no intention of selling it to make $$- I thought about contacting the webmaster- see if he could use it for others who hit this site...just a thought though- i wouldn't be able to do it over night by any means- would definatley take some time.

 

[admin]

Because of the copywrite issues this isn't something I can support on the site. Sorry!

 

[rocketeater]

I wasn't sure what the copywright issues were. If anyone wants to discuss more about this though-outside of website, let me know.

 

[StraightSix]

In a lot of cases, old service manuals are in the public domain -- and therefore free to copy, sell, and distribute. That's why you see many of them on eBay in CD format. Unless a manufacturer keeps the copyright renewed, which many don't on discontinued products, then it becomes public domain. The copy of the '68 shop manual I have says that it's an "Officially Licensed Product," printed in 1996, but the only copyright date to be found is 1967 on a reproduction page. It looks to me like they never renewed the copyright, but instead are just marketing it as a licensed product. I'm not sure what that means, but I don't think that it's copyrighted anymore. I'm not a legal expert, however, so don't hold me to that!

-Winston

 

[admin]

That's great if it's true that Ford no longer holds the copywrite. Can anyone verify this? My understanding from talking to people like Paul Newitt and Kevin Marti is that Ford is very protective of their copywrites and keeps them enforced.

 

[rocketeater]

My only intention when I first thought of this- is that I spend so much time in front of a computer all day- it would be nice to the service book handy- and not have to worry spills, grease, ripping out a page (god forbid!!)

Again I have no intention of selling for profit/ or for money- just wanted to make download available for what i thought others might also benefit from.

I would consider asking Ford- but wouldn't know where to begin....any suggestions ???

 

[StraightSix]

There are laws concerning fair use of copyrighted materials. However, I think that Ford would have a case against online reproduction of the entire manual, because that could potentially affect the sales of their product -- a no-no if you're claiming "fair use." All in all, I think it's a bad idea unless their copyright is expired. I'll try and remember to ask my friend about this -- he just graduated from UT law school with an intellectual property and patent law focus. He probably has some familiarity with copyright law, and may be able to tell me where to look for copyright information.

-Winston