Missing Manuals

[3guk]

Well guys you know me always thinging of things to do to try and help people out and todays idea is a manuals database.

 

The idea being that as many pdf manuals as we can possibly find will be hosted in one place.

 

If you need a manual it would be the first port of call.

 

Users would be able to send in their pdfs that they have to add to the pool, and hopefully it would save time searching.

 

The manuals would be categorised and be searchable !?

 

Is there something like this already ??

 

Regards

[djw1981]

I think your main problems would be copyright and keeping them current, as manufacturers often add bits into their online versiosn to fix commonn faults / FAQs IME.

[gareth]

Someone's beaten you to it. Read this.

[3guk]

This would be for lighting kit / manuals !?

[gareth]

This would be for lighting kit / manuals !?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Read the first line of the first post in the topic that I linked to carefully - the author says quite clearly that he's expended his brief from sound manuals only to encompass lighting manuals as well.

[3guk]

Ok fair enough, I think I still fancy a crack at it though :)

[slim_mcslim]

just my two pence...

 

but if I want a manual for something then I am destined to go to the manufacturers website as that should hold the manual I am looking for, rather than waste time looking through a third party site only to find what I am looking for isn't there.

 

unless I knew the third party site to be a fully comprehensive resource then it would not be a lot of use. if you want an example of fully comprehensive try looking at the amount of PDF's on the JBL website, hundreds of them dating back over 10 years and still I have speakers that aren't covered by any of the online manuals...

 

so if you have plenty of time on your hands then there is nothing stopping you, but it may prove about as useful as a 3 year warranty on a new rover...

 

slim...

[gareth]

Slim makes a good point - the vast majority of people who are looking online for an operators manual or technical manual for a piece of lighting or sound equipment are going to try the manufacturer's website first. If they find it there, then they aren't going to look anywhere else. If they don't find it there, chances are it doesn't exist, so won't be on your site either.

[3guk]

But surely if people could submit their own manuals that they have collected over time then it would be more comprehensive than manufacturers sites.

 

Also we would provide a scanning service so that anyone with a relitvly unheard of manual can send it in for scanning which would be posted to the site !?

[MikeR]

Also we would provide a scanning service so that anyone with a relitvly unheard of manual can send it in for scanning which would be posted to the site !?

 

No worries about copyright then or security. Don't forget that kit minus manuals is frequesntly supplied by Backofthelorry and Sons as a way of keeping costs down.

Oh and whos going to foot the bill for the scanning service?

[gareth]

But surely if people could submit their own manuals that they have collected over time then it would be more comprehensive than manufacturers sites.

I don't quite see what you're getting at. I can go to, say, the Martin Professional website and download the user manual for any piece of Martin kit that I can think of. What feature of your site would make it more attractive to me in the sense that I'd think about going to your site before the Martin Professional one (or any other manufacturer, for that matter)?

[paulears]

It seems to me, from doing a search on people doing similar things for different product areas on the net, that two things happen. They try to do it for free, but soon realise the task is almost a full time job if it is to be truly useful. Or, they do it and make charges for copying, p&p time etc. Then the copyright become problematic, and manufacturer isue cease and desist notification - then a household name has to be removed, making the comprehensive database useless as a one stop shop. You get plagued with requests for odd manuals and then have to spend ages finding them. A good indication of how difficult this sort of thing is, is to pick a .dll file at random from your machine, then see how easy/difficult it is to actualy get it on the net. Registrations, money, and frustration make the whole enterprise a pain in the backside - to make it worse, as mentioned, people have had the idea before and dropped it. Try a test - I need a manual for the effects desk of a Strand M24 - can you get one?

[3guk]

You have a point you would have to pay for the manual.

 

The manuals would only be avalible as PDF files and hence there would be no costs involved for me. Yes it may take tme but as long as there si some community help I am sure it is achievable, if everyone just had a quick look on their hard drives and sent me all the manuals that they could find we would already have a huge amount. People often have them residing on their HDs and either forget or think that it would be useless to everyone else.

 

Gareth :

 

You may be able to go to the martin site and download every manual for every piece of kit they have and thats because martin have taken the time and effort to archive everyone. There are only a few manufacturers that take the time or the effort to do this.

 

You can not however go to the martin site and download a manual for your roboscan 812 and a manual for the fatfrog you have just aquired. This is the point of a manuals database. In one place you could download most if not all of the manuals for your rig and control.

 

 

I know people dont always want to submit their manuals as it takes time and effort but Im sure somepeople wouldn't mind emailing a few PDFs.

 

Just taking a quick peek on my HD I have around 70 manuals for all the different kit I have used in the past. Looking on google for a few of them they are not always visible or even in existance.

[paulears]

I know what you mean - but what you are proposing is actually illegal - you can't copy, store, distribute...... I'm sure you know the rest. So what you'd have to do is get permission for every manual you want to 'hold'. There is not blanket method of doing this, unlike music, or sheet music - so imagine what a pain this will be. If you offer the service free, it is illegal, if you actually sell the document in either real or electronic format, it is a copy of a copyrighted piece of someones intelectual property. Although the original purchaser gets given one - they can't pass it on. In the real world, this isn't a problem, unless you turn it into a business, no matter how small - once you do, stand by to get the nasty letter!

paul

 

ps The wording on the front of the first manual I grabbed (a Futurelight MH640) says in big bold letters - REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED! (in large capital letters)

[3guk]

I already have permission from a few manufacturers about the use of their manuals and they seem fine about it. I do not ever intend to sell or make moeny from these and am prepared to ask permission for every manual I recieve.

 

Surely I can just ask say martin for teh use of all of their manuals, I do not intend to change them in any way. Almost providing a mirror for martin, zero88 et al but in one simple to browse place.

 

Surely all the people with PDFs on their HDs have got them from the manufacturers site at some point its just the cost of paying for the bandwith to host them that stops manufacturers hosting them for ever.

 

I could see it being illegal if I was copying them and trying to charge for something that is not mine but surely if it is free to download then there is no problem !!