Contribution Policy

Copyright

Copyright law is tricky, and we make our best effort to responsibly draw a line at what we host. The concept of Fair Use is critical to how we make decisions.

For this reason, please do not upload PDFs or direct copy of manufacturer text or media here.

Definitely link to it or instructions on how to get it (publisher, title, page).

Archival

If a resource disappears or seems at risk of disappearing, check with the community about a backup policy.

If something you retain disappears, and you have private copies, there may be fair use arguments in favor of publishing it, or handing it off to someone in another jurisdiction to publish, maybe EFF or other legal entities can help with legal advice.

The Internet Archive is a good resource to prevent disappearance of web material, and have good lawyers.

At The Internet Archive Wayback Machine, you can paste a site into the Save Page Now box at the bottom right, which works fine as long as the site owner does not object.

See also wikipedia on abandoned materials.

Abandonware

We're definitely considering what to do about abandoned and unsupported products.

When a manufacturer stops offering information about a product because it has been discontinued or the manufacturer has ceased operating, owners need a resource to continue keeping what they have in good repair.

We'll attempt to legitimately obtain permission to work further with previously-published materials and resources, but may use some judgement calls in favor of owners when there is a lack of attention or response from the vendor.

Adapting Primary Source Material

If you learn something really insightful from OEM documents not publicly shared, what is probably permissible as a derived work is to document what you did as a result or what concept was revealed, as your own work.