Cleve,
While I respect your views, I cannot agree with you.
The Europa has some stunningly clever design features, but the construction
is "standard composite" and used by countless other kit a/c producers. The
technology is in the public domain and if anyone should have IP rights, it
would be Burt Rutan who started the ball rolling some thirty years back.
You could no more produce a Europa clone from an assembly manual than you
could re-create a Dodge truck from its maintenance manual.
It is the Assembly manual we are talking about - not the engineering
drawings - which would reveal IP.
You may rest assured that the competition will already have been inside,
under and around the Europa.
---From the factory's perspective, there are attractive cost benefits to
on-line manuals.
No printing, distribution or postage costs, instant and cost free on-line
updates.
By comparison, think of the logistics (read "cost") involved in an English
company printing hundreds of manuals, shipping them to the US and then
having to update them?
---From the builders standpoint, it is so much more convenient to print off a
page, use it during that part of construction - then bin the resin covered
remains. I used to photo-copy my manual pages to achieve the same.
My vote remains public access - online.
Nigel
----- Original Message -----
From: <clevelee@cswebmail.com>
Subject: Re: Manuals on the Net
> My company too supplies software, and under certain conditions will supply
.pdf
> files for customer review.
>
> The problem is that manuals also represent significant intellectual
property and
> creative solutions to problems. You are effectively giving all the
competition
> clever ways to design their aircraft. The europa control system is
reasonably
> unique, as is the strength/structure of the molded cockpit and ways to
install
> controls into this environment. If it were my company I wouldn't do it
for
> general consumption.
>
> On the other hand, it would be an additional strong selling point to make
the
> .pdf version available to registered builders of Europas. As the kit
market
> advances, it is a way for Europa to stay on the leading edge (pun
intended - as
> their airfoil is 'leading edge'. One is still faced with the relatively
easy
> capability to distribute a manual in .pdf format even after it has been
> purchased as part of a kit.
>
> One solution may be to provide access to chapters on their web site
through
> password protection and do not allow downloading.
>
> Cleve
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