4 ms·

I doesn't really interfere with most of that because most people don't have (and never will have) the capability to apply themselves to such a scenario. This is

I doesn't really interfere with most of that because most people don't have (and never will have) the capability to apply themselves to such a scenario. This is more for lock-in purposes and cost saving. Having technical documentation out there is very costly, as is having parts logistics for consumers, especially if it's not your core business. I'm sure there is a large percentage of unethical reasons, but most of the stuff you read about is just lawyer departments lawyering and have little to do with reality (but sady does make rules within the reality of hard- and software). Most of the directions a lawyer department get are the kind of "make this happen, figure out how". It's not an engineer that makes something and then call the in-house counsel asking to make it really hard for everyone else in the world to touch his design; engineers are unlikely to care about that and more likely to want to share and engage with like-minded people.

deogeo 8y ago
> I doesn't really interfere with most of that because most people don't have (and never will have) the capability to apply themselves to such a scenario. But they can hire someone who does. Car maintenance is a pretty much perfect analogy. So it does affect everyone, even the least technically inclined.
- oneplane 8y ago
  Same goes for John Deere tractors. Still a mess to get data, schematics or parts for.
JohnFen 8y ago
> Having technical documentation out there is very costly How expensive is it to provide the ability to download PDFs? > as is having parts logistics for consumers, especially if it's not your core business. The manufacturer itself doesn't have to do this. It would be sufficient to allow third parties (such as, perhaps, the company that the manufacturer is buying the parts from) do it. That sort of thing would be in their core business.
- oneplane 8y ago
  Very expensive, you have to check every single file, every single release, revision and part, you have to censor IP, you have to run everything by lawyers and PR departments etc. That is the way of the commercial enterprise. You could suggest they not do that, but that is likely to bite them in the ass down the road. No company is sharing their internal versions with the outside world. Making the versions for design, manufacture and internal testing alone is basically a multi-million department's work. I suppose one of the things a lot of people don't take in to account that what you see as a consumer is just the tip of a very large iceberg behind it. This is the unfortunate way most of the countries that rely heavily on secrets/IP/law to function work. It's mostly a side-effect, because the protection also allows for a good position when dealing with other enterprises. Downside is that consumers suddenly are very much out of their league.
  - JohnFen 8y ago
    > Very expensive, you have to check every single file, every single release, revision and part, you have to censor IP, you have to run everything by lawyers and PR departments etc. That is the way of the commercial enterprise. Every company I've worked for (and my own companies) has managed to do that exact thing in an economical way. The bulk of the work is in the initial creation of the document. From there on, only the changes have to be vetted.
    - oneplane 8y ago
      I suppose it depends on the scope, size and IP involved. I do remember it being much faster and easier a while back when I was working with a smaller organisation. It's hard to switch back and forth between larger and smaller contexts, I guess the real point is that it's not always easy to see how hard/easy it is from the context where the problem is. Even een combination of occam's razor and hanlon's razor doesn't always give a direction on which to think or research. Are you mostly referring to companies in a specific country, or multinationals?
      - JohnFen 8y ago

deogeo 8y ago

> I doesn't really interfere with most of that because most people don't have (and never will have) the capability to apply themselves to such a scenario. But they can hire someone who does. Car maintenance is a pretty much perfect analogy. So it does affect everyone, even the least technically inclined.

oneplane 8y ago
Same goes for John Deere tractors. Still a mess to get data, schematics or parts for.

JohnFen 8y ago

> Having technical documentation out there is very costly How expensive is it to provide the ability to download PDFs? > as is having parts logistics for consumers, especially if it's not your core business. The manufacturer itself doesn't have to do this. It would be sufficient to allow third parties (such as, perhaps, the company that the manufacturer is buying the parts from) do it. That sort of thing would be in their core business.

oneplane 8y ago
Very expensive, you have to check every single file, every single release, revision and part, you have to censor IP, you have to run everything by lawyers and PR departments etc. That is the way of the commercial enterprise. You could suggest they not do that, but that is likely to bite them in the ass down the road. No company is sharing their internal versions with the outside world. Making the versions for design, manufacture and internal testing alone is basically a multi-million department's work. I suppose one of the things a lot of people don't take in to account that what you see as a consumer is just the tip of a very large iceberg behind it. This is the unfortunate way most of the countries that rely heavily on secrets/IP/law to function work. It's mostly a side-effect, because the protection also allows for a good position when dealing with other enterprises. Downside is that consumers suddenly are very much out of their league.
- JohnFen 8y ago
  > Very expensive, you have to check every single file, every single release, revision and part, you have to censor IP, you have to run everything by lawyers and PR departments etc. That is the way of the commercial enterprise. Every company I've worked for (and my own companies) has managed to do that exact thing in an economical way. The bulk of the work is in the initial creation of the document. From there on, only the changes have to be vetted.
  - oneplane 8y ago
    I suppose it depends on the scope, size and IP involved. I do remember it being much faster and easier a while back when I was working with a smaller organisation. It's hard to switch back and forth between larger and smaller contexts, I guess the real point is that it's not always easy to see how hard/easy it is from the context where the problem is. Even een combination of occam's razor and hanlon's razor doesn't always give a direction on which to think or research. Are you mostly referring to companies in a specific country, or multinationals?
    - JohnFen 8y ago