If I were you, I'd be very careful with this. Even assuming only financial damage is covered, a contention that they *intended* to sell it again at some undefined future point would make you liable. Aside from that, there is the moral issue. Stealing is not OK just because you think you can get away with it. Could I steal a candy bar from my local convenience store and get away with it? Probably. Whether I get away with it or not, it would still be wrong. Copyright and patent laws protect "intellectual" property from theft. There seems to be a growing idea that these are not important, but I guess I'm just not locked into the material world well enough to believe that the things I make with my hands are protected from theft, but the things I make with my mind are free for the taking. At 10:30 AM 3/30/97 -0600, you wrote: >They cannot sue you for copyright infringement unless you cause financial >damage to them. Since they are not offering this old document for sale, you >can safely copy and redistribute it at will since you are not causing harm >to a revenue stream that they are otherwise likely to get. > >Copyright only applies when there is financial damage. In the absence of >demonstrated financial damage, they cannot collect. Everybody keep this in >mind, and copy stuff as much as you like, especially stuff that is no longer >for sale from the manufacturer. My guess is, it is probably safe to copy >everything but the Bentley manuals.
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