Cari-in-Oly

Copying manuals to sell is another one of those hot buttons, obviously. I'm all for looking for a free one if it's available somewhere, but sometimes it's not. Two trains of thought here-

1. There are people who go about it legitimately. Linda Wilkens spends tons of money in legal fees to own the rights to the manuals she sells and she reproduces them in very nice hard copies as well as PDFs.

2. To my way of thinking the manual is one of the most important tools to have for a machine, any kind of machine not just a sewing machine. Especially if it's a machine you're not familiar with. I don't understand why someone wouldn't be willing to pay for a manual to be able to operate and get the most out of a machine, regardless of how much or how little the machine costs. I bought one of my embroidery machines used and if the manual hadn't been with it I would have gladly paid for one if I couldn't find a free one.

Cari

Rodney

I don't think someone like Linda is what has people offended. She has incurred costs in getting the rights to distribute the material she sells and offers hard copies too. I think it's the "less reputable" ebay sellers that scan in anything they find without being overly concerned about copyrights then sell pdf files at ridiculous prices that has people upset. I'm not offended by people making money for their efforts but I do think the prices should be fair. I'm not offended by paying $10 for a physical copy but I would balk at paying the same for a download. So far I haven't bought any manuals for my machines. I've been able to find free downloads from either Singerco.com or ISMACS. The trouble is there are a ton of machines out there that have no free manuals available. I think many of the Japanese machines fit that category. Information on many of them is sketchy at best.
Rodney

crafty pat

We lived on Taiwan for two years many years ago. They copy everything and I remember seeing machines that looked a lot like that on the local market.

Cari-in-Oly

I agree, prices should be fair, but there again, what's fair to one person might not be to another. Some sellers are honest and some aren't, and some are just ignorant. $10 for a download, yeah, maybe seems too high, but for my embroidery machine if that would have been all I could find I would have paid it.

Cari

jlhmnj

You are obviously more technologically advanced than myself. Beg pardon.

Jon

jlhmnj

Should publishing houses sell there books at cost?---they didn't right it.

Jon

manicmike

or write it.
Publishing houses work with and pay authors, editors, printing companies and distributors to have original works printed and distributed. They outlay an enormous amount of investment capital and employ a large number of people. They are also a legal company and they pay tax.
Now, you want to draw a comparison between these pillars of education, history and civilisation to someone who finds a copy of said publishing house's work. They scan it and ask people to give them $10 every time they can click so they can ride the gravy train. It has so far involved no risk, no skill, no tax, no investment and very little of their time.

Can you see how ridiculous your comparison is? You really sound like you're trying to defend them and I'm probably not the only one wondering why.

jlhmnj

You seem to be saying it's OK for the Big Guy to make a Buck but the little guy should donate (or make a $1-$2)on his time and effort ? You really think someone can sell 1,000's of Davis, Grover and Baker or Florence manuals? I know it takes me hours to copy and edit with a pretty mediocre result not worthy of any money except as a gift. I have respect and admiration for those individual who can do this with a good result and they should not be ashamed like you are insinuating.

Jon

PS--Who are you defending---"The Man" (teehe)

Champanier

I appreciate being able to find the manuals. If they're free, great, but if the only way to get them is to pay, I'd rather have them than not. It takes me a significant amount of time to scan and clean up documents (I do genealogy and family photos, mostly), so I can understand charging more than a couple dollars for a good printable pdf. And if it's more than 70 years old, I believe it's out of copyright in most cases. On the other hand, I recently paid $5.95 for a PDF download and I was really disappointed with the image quality. It was so tiny and light that it was virtually unreadable. The images showing oiling pints were so pixelated that I couldn't distinguish the arrows. So, I wasn't happy about having paid for such poor quality.

manicmike

I don't think there's any point replying to your assertions, Jon. Either you're completely missing every point made (not only mine) or you're desperate to avoid being seen as "wrong" (it's time to stop digging that particular hole). Neither of these is going to earn you much respect. 'nuff said