Quote:
Originally Posted by Rare Iron
This is the way I read it. Say you are a garage door installer & repairman, & you have all the latest tricks, technology, & experience that sets you apart from all the other service people in your area - you make a good living at it because you are so good. Now the government steps in & says you have an unfair advantage & need to share your knowledge, tricks, tools, & experience with all the others that do the same thing in your area. Maybe you are a factory guy that works for the manufacturer & you are better because you have the special tools & service manuals, plus you know your product better than anyone else. The government can step in & dictate to you that you must enable your competitors to compete with you on an even keel, & you must supply them with the means?
No matter what spin you put on this, it's plain wrong! If this bill comes to be, it will also affect the big truck dealers (Peterbilt, Kenworth, Freightliner, etc.) & I'll tell you firsthand, there is LOTS of proprietary technology & repair equipment with those guys. This is one step away from abolishing PATENTS on products - think about it.
|
I think that you may be misreading it, if this is the complete text of the legislation. Using your example it didn't appear to me from what was posted that it would affect any "tricks" of the trade that you referenced. I know I have many,many tricks I have accumlated over 40+ years and freely share them...with whom I choose. they would have a tough time making me share anything that I don't wish to. I believe it is mainly aimed at repair info, as a Patent holder , I don't see how that would impact anything as far as patents go.
My interpretation,and I am extremely constitutional, is that it would prevent manufacturers of any item from being able to withhold info anyone that are not dealers. Since very few cars wind up in dealers after a year or so I can see where there may be an adjustment for a couple year period, but the problem I see is that the dealers themselves put sales ahead of service, so they need to clean up their act before they could attribute any loss of revenue on this legislation.
Now, from a purely observational point, I would think there are already some laws in effect that would cover this. It reminds me of the girl that hit a bicyclist(locally) while she was downloading ringtones... the police didn't even ticket her because there was no law that addressed that. I seemed to think wreckless driving would have been one. It seems to describe wreckless driving to a T.
I don't believe they can force any company to release the info for free and they may have a charge for some of that info. But if you are making money off of it then you should be willing to pay. Again, at some point the length of time that they can charge for that info should have a determined period, just like a Patent. Recall and update info is pretty easy to get in this area and I don't know how this would alter that.