unethics

[Mike Arman]

>"Unethical" also applies to anyone who
>purchases or receives copyrighted material without permission of the 
>copyright
>owner.
>With that in mind, there are a lot of unethical members on this discussion
>group.


Nah, not us . . .

As a book publisher, copyright gives me the legal basis for stopping anyone 
from copying "my" work (copyright=ownership).

There are two parts to this - first is simply stopping them, second is 
collecting damages, which are generally regarded as lost sales.

FA is an odd situation. It is definitely owned my someone, but the 
copyright owner will NOT sell it to most of the people who want it. 
Interestingly, it is not proprietary information or trade secrets, and far 
from being damaged by the dissemination of the data, the copyright owner 
sees increased parts sales.

I think the problem arises in the legal relationship between the 
manufacturer and the authorized dealers. The dealers feel that if part 
numbers are available, people might buy parts from non-dealer sources 
(doh), so it is the DEALERS who want to keep the FA unavailable, and since 
the manufacturer NEEDS the dealers to hustle their products, they have to 
keep them at least reasonably happy.

The problem of course is that the dealers heartily wish that everyone would 
buy a brand new car every time the old one needed an oil change. They have 
never made the connection that a satisfied owner of an older car who 
eventually starts making more money might buy a new one, but prefer to deal 
exclusively with people who are ALREADY rich.

And of course to keep things even murkier, in Canada, a Federal judge (is 
that the correct term?) has decided that file sharing, if not done for 
profit, is LEGAL, and the music (source material) owners can't make them 
stop. So I guess we can now get our FAs from Canada, along with the "V" 
drug and other necessities of life.

And murkier yet, are there not now some requirements for auto manufacturers 
to provide service information and literature for aftermarket repair shops?

The solution, of course, would be for the FA to be made available, and SOLD 
to anyone who wants one, with a 10% discount on parts at your local dealer 
when you present your serialized certificate (or something) that says you 
bought a legitimate copy of the FA, and you're an "FA Preferred Customer".

Of course that has about as much chance of happening as Ariel and Yasser 
opening up a religious bookstore together . . .

Nomex on, SPF 900 lotion applied.

Best Regards,
Mike Arman