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by rasz
1813 days ago
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>But even without the DMCA, having unauthorized copies of copyrighted documents is still illegal, right? it is, but schematics are not copyrightable. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behringer#Legal_cases : On 30 November 1999, the U.S. District Court in Seattle, Washington, dismissed Mackie claims that Behringer had infringed on Mackie copyrights with its MX 8000 mixer, noting that circuit schematics are not covered by copyright laws. |
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Data has never been copyrightable. Copyright has only ever protected creative expression. Draw your own diagrams and write your own explanations and you're fine. (See iFixit, for instance.)
It's just like how you can't post a copy of The Matrix online but you can definitely write a plot summary without infringing anyone's copyright. Whether it makes sense that manuals (and firmware, for that matter) are considered as worthy of copyright protection as The Matrix is a separate question, but the law sees them the same way.