Hi all, i'm too young and too far for woodstock, still i can see what is wrong in this world. If canon (and other manufacturers) would share their knowledge to humanity, we (the humanity) will gain a lot of possibilities, not only to download a manual. think at canon 300d. what does it leaks (mostly)? mirror locking, metering mode choosing, ...
that gear is a piece of electronic-drove technology, so a lot of (missing) features could be implemented via firmware. If that firmware where released as open-source we would be able to change it for implementing every feature we want (as long as it does not need a different hardware, of course), or change the behaviour of existant feature (e.g. the way the bulb shoot works should be re-written into the 'click->start / click->stop' pattern, instead of the 'hold click for as long as you need' one, but this is only an example) obviously if it where possible, (quite) no one would still buy a 10D, THIS is the reason why neither canon nor any other manufacturer share their knowledge, together with the fear that someone else would be able to build a comparable gear at lower price. But sigma (for example) already produce compatible lenses, and do you think they are the same ? They could make a choice on what release and what to keep secret, manuals are surely copyrighted, this does not means that they could not release them under an open-source license or simply let you download them from their site, the real reason is that they are too blind (or too old-school!) to see that this would even increase their sells, if I have to choose between two manufacturers, I would prefer the one who gives me more affidability (of course) but I would also prefer the one who gives me more freedom. obivously this is *my opinion* sorry about my english. ciao, danilo > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Henry Posner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Maybe Canon shouldn't copyright them, and maybe the law's stupid > (another > topic for another thread) but either you're flouting the law and the > creator's rights, or this is an act of civil disobedience, which as a > child > of the Woodstock era I have to applaud. :-) > > > Missed Woodstock, but will still applaud ! > You cannot make money out of a Canon manual. It's aimed at people who > either lost their original or want to learn more before they buy their > camera. So one way or another Canon(or any other company for that > matter) will benefit. Let's not get paranoid about copyright rights. > Manuals should be free to download anyway. > Service manuals may be different. If you need a service manual you're > either likely to attempt repairing something yourself (so Canon repair > centre loses money) or you're carrying out repairs for canon equipment > and charge people for it in which case it's not fair to have it for > free. > * **** ******* *********************************************************** * For list instructions, including unsubscribe, see: * http://www.a1.nl/phomepag/markerink/eos_list.htm ***********************************************************
