i see a honda accord 2003 - 2004 factory shop repair manual (enough words for this item!?) listed for sale on eBay, at $9.95 plus shipping.
the seller must be a powerseller, because he won’t spend the time to explain from whence these PDF file originate.
i should suppose the expensive hardcopy book (~$90) has been scanned, or turned in to the CD he’s selling on eBay.
hey, at ten dollars, i need one–but . . .
anyone know if this deal is on the up and up?
is it really page for page, the Honda authoritative factory shop manual?
thanks for any empirical responses!@
Michael
The factory service manual I purchased from Chrysler for my Pacifica came in PDF format on a CD, but it cost me $90, IIRC.
I would would be wary of a FSM offered for $9.99. A lot of these are, as you suspect, a scan, of usually poor quality, of a legitimate manual. They are reportedly unreadable in many cases, and violate copyright laws in all cases.
I agree, the cheap manuals on ebay are usually clones made by someone, I assume they are illegal and I have also heard complaints about their quality. Proceed at your own risk.
If he is selling scanned copies, consider this. He is a crook and do you really want to buy (even only $10.00) from a crook? Do you think he is going to be fair and honest with you?
And if there is a copyright on the document, you are liable for the infringement. How do they know where you got the copy from? I know it seems far-fetched, but consider the brou-ha-ha over music copyrights.
excuse me!! i didn’t ask for ideological opinions or stances, i asked for some empirical feedback, from someone who has seen or used a
(low-priced, which is the essential issue here!) PDF version of the honda factory manual, the FSM --as the acronym has come to be; usta be FSM stood for free speech movement!).
a scanned (pdf) may reasonably be as good a text as needed, for the practical purpose an amateur has for a repair manual i should think. The PDF file format is commonly used for mechanical drawings, and in fact PDF files were developed for just such utilitarian purposes.
if you want to wade in to a debate about ideological underpinnings of “copyright” that’s another kettle of fish. and i’m most happy to offer my own ‘deconstruction’ of that institutionalized convenience of capitalism, but only for seriously interested argumentation; my interpretation is radical, and you might not like it, or the implications it holds for “musicians” or “artists”–but it does betoken a truly different organization of the social and materialist world, tho at present, only a hypothetical one.
but if you want to ‘go there’, a prereq for the arena might be a nodding acquaintance with Lawrence Lessig, and his association with some copyright revisionism! --:–)
Creative Commons License, Free Culture [by Lawrence Lessig] How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity
by the way,
here’s a url for ya! --an entry from a Google search (& since we’re tacitly already on the topic, consider if i am dancing too cavalierly upon a grave, of COPYRIGHT,
by attaching this PDF link, just below:
[PDF]
Free Culture
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat
Lessig, Lawrence. Free culture : how big media uses technology and the law to lock down. culture and control creativity / Lawrence Lessig. …
www.free-culture.cc/freeculture.pdf
and i’m not unhappy to see that Chrysler is upon quite hard times.
i speak of Chrysler, “THE CORPORATION”, not the poor disfranchised working stiffs who have no way to manipulate “copyright” laws that enrich the corporate entity quite sooner than any wage earner in the common work force. ahem.
not that honda, a present day winner, isn’t as bad as any Murkian manufacturer of the internal combustion engined vehicle–.
it does follow the generic american style corporate raison d’etre i believe.
but it makes a product that actually ‘works’!! so i want the manual.
dude!
i DO buy from crooks (at least i think they are; maybe they’re not what you refer to as “crook” tho). yes, i buy from “corporations”; they’re crooks often, and i have few practical alternatives than having truck with 'em sometimes. You?
do i think they’re “going to be fair and honest” with me???
what do you think?
do you think they’re fair and honest?
The information about copyright was offered to give you a complete picture, had you been of a mind to weigh that factor in your decision. (Well, it apparently does, just not in the expected direction.)
I suppose there would be some poetic justice if you bought one of these bootlegs, and discovered the contents unreadable and infected with a virus. Just don’t complain about not being forewarned.
ok, maybe it would be somehow “poetic”, --but justice?
what is the justice that inheres in this?
the complete pic i want is of the 2004 accord shop manual. there is nothing particularly concerned with justice or ethics in the issue, as i have an interest in it.
you refer to “one of these bootlegs” but that issue has not even been addressed, merely inferred!
one may be too quick to presume, and then to judge!
not for you the deliberate diagnostician’s trade! i guess you’re not with a mechanics’ shop, right?
Oh waiter, check, please!
My diagnostic skills are in the field of psychology by formal education and profession; those involving the automotive field are merely those of someone who worked in a garage for many years and has done almost all his own maintenance and repairs for the past 35 years.
Upon which set of diagnostic skills would you wish to call?
If Chryco’s legal department goes after the seller in court, and if they catch him they will, then the first thing they’re going to supeona is his records…including who bought the illegal copies.
Should you decide to knowingly buy one, you deserve what you get. I don’t like seeing people duped, you you are not being duped.
And I’ll personally testify to NYBo’s diagnostic expertise. Lord knows I’ve learned a lot from him.
And you Waddell, your diagnostic background, your qualifications for making such a comment, is???
sir!
all seriousness aside: )do you ahve a copy of this PDF that everyone seems to be referring to?
(i begin to suspect it’s an OTHER thing than the CD manual i am trying to find out about)
if you have the honda accord pdf manual, may i borrow it, or will you send it me? (9 dollard version only pls!)
i promise to send it you, back.
Do you have another question, or are you just enjoying a little word-play?
Either buy the manual or not, keeping in mind what we’ve told you or not.
Ah, in our cups a little early in the day, are we? ;o)
Nope, I do not. I only buy legal documents (or services to a system such as Mitchell’s or Alldata) through totally legal channels. I’m afraid you’ll have to find the documents you allude to on your own.
nice word game you started? silly man.
DO WHAT YOU WANT,YOU JUST WANTED TO SHOW US HOW SMART YOU THINK YOU ARE.
have a sunny day,or joust with yourself,OR something.(FALL off the PLANET,just a thought)
go to I think I’m a POET .com(you will be well recieved.
BLOOM in an OUTHOUSE.
Apparently you don't understand that most of us here, spend our own money to buy the real thing. We pay more because some people are breaking the law and stealing the work of those (individuals or corporations) who put all that data together add to our cost the money they should have received from those who steal from them by taking their property. It is no different than stealing from the grocery store.
You may not like the way the rest of society had decided to live, but that does not give anyone the right to steal.
You do have the right to work to change the law. If you really believe that the law is wrong, then it is also your responsibility as a citizen to do so.
I doubt if many of the very knowledgeable people here are going to be interested in helping you out if you need it and are man enough to post your question under the same name.It may simply be an official Honda CD PDF version of the manual that the seller got a hold of. $10 + shipping you don’t have much to lose.
It’s nice to have friends. You guys have been busy this afternoon!