Ferraridatabase.com offline

That's not supporting the older cars, that's just running a business to make money!

And in many cases, can they actually "support" the older cars?

The fact is, there are a lot of repairs on older cars that the Main Dealers would come back to the owner saying: "Sorry but you need xxxxxxx part replacing and Ferrari no longer make them so we cannot fix it!" - And they'll charge you a stupid labour rate to tell you that in the process!

(Try getting a Ferrari Main Dealer to fix your non functioning 348 air con/heating system when the Fan speed control resistor has failed - I'll all but guarantee you that they'll send you on your way without fixing it due an obsolete part that they can no longer get!)


To properly support the older cars, Ferrari would re-manufacture obsolete parts such as fuel pump parts, air con/heater parts, lighting assemblies such as headlights/lower light assemblies/rear light assemblies, body panels, window glasses, switchgear, electrical motors, etc., etc., etc., so that owners of older cars didn't have to rely on cars being broken for spares to keep their cars on the road, or have to resort to modifying parts from other makes to keep their cars running.

They'd offer a decent discount on servicing for owners of older cars, knowing that in the vast majority of cases, the owners of older cars are not as rich as the owners of the new cars.

Here in the UK, BMW offer discounted pricing for service work on older cars, they offer discount priced OEM parts in "no frills" packaging for older cars, and quite a few of the Main Dealerships offer to price match with the independent specialists when it comes to service and repairs on older cars. Now that is how to support the older cars!

I haven't ever heard of Ferrari offering anything like the same sort of service!



As for Ferrari's reasons for shutting down Ferraridatabase.com, there are two issues here:

1) The name Ferraridatabase.com incorporates Ferrari's trademark name which everyone knows they tend to defend it's use here there and everywhere. Added to that, it could easily be misconstrued as being an official Ferrari site, especially in light of the content of the site.

2) The material being offered for download on the site is the IP of Ferrari SPA and they own the copyright on it (as clearly stated in every manual produced). That copyright included not only physical reproductions but electronic reproductions also, so the redistribution of the information in the manner that it was being done, was, like it or not, in breach of the Law.

Let's put it this way:

Why should the distribution of Ferrari's manuals over the internet be treated any differently to someone copying and distributing the Harry Potter books over the internet?

Even if they're giving it away for free and making no money whatsoever, they still do not have the legal right to do it!

Don't get Me wrong - The Ferraridatabase.com was an incredibly useful site to owners and it's a pity Ferrari have never thought of offering the same sort of service/support to owners of older cars (Let's be honest here though, if they did, owners would probably have to pay through the nose for the manuals!).

Like it or not though, Ferrari do have a right to protect their trademark and IP information.

 

Ferraridatabase.com was a great source of information. I tried to look a few days ago to view the 250 LM manual and wondered why the site was down. I will miss it. Thanks for your hard work, Ben.

 

Can somebody who has these manuals and is computer literate please upload them to a new site or make them available through a torrent network.

 

What I don't get is why they went after him, where everything was free and had no ads giving him money, but sites like this that have comparable PDF files CHARGE for download and are still up and running. Seems like BS to me.

Ferrari PDF manuals | Ferrari Automobilia | Maranello Literature | Librairie Ferrari Bookstore

 

Last time I was on the owners section of ferrari.com, the manuals for my model were available for download as PDFs.

 

At one time they did. Almost as comprehensive as ferraridatabase (only the Owner's Manuals though) and they were all free to download, as long as you were logged in as a registered owner. After a few years of that, they pulled the pin and you could no longer downlaod as much as you could...

...For that particular model you'd own, but I'm not sure you could download a manual for a car that you DIDN'T own. I'll admit I haven't logged into my Owner's account in YEARS so I'm not sure if that is possible to do or not. Probably have to re-register to log back in (arrghh, torture!).

Many thanks to you Ben Bots for running the site for all of that time. I didn't get a chance to download all of your content but I did for many Ferrari models and I greatly appreciate it.

(You can always repost it somewhere on the "darkweb" or whatever that seedy underworld is called )

 

Ben, you did great work for many years, thank you much for that. I will miss it.

File sharing is one way to go, for example: ferrari manual - 4shared.com download free - 1

We all could start sharing the pdf files we have on a site like the above.

 

Ah! okay.

TBH, I never managed to get through the registration process so never had an account on the official Ferrari.com site - Apparently neither of My email accounts (that absolutely everybody else in the World uses without a problem) existed according to Ferrari!

 

Great idea. Start uploading what you've got

 

Do I dare to tell where to download the WSM;s for 308, 328, 348, 360, 456, 550 and the TR?
Bertil

 

Well, you most certainly will cause a rush to that website, but I would say it is all in a good cause......please do!

 

Yes. Ferrari doesn't support the enthusiast so do it.

 

Well, here we go......Shop Manuals - Ferrari DIY, Classified, News & More
Bertil

 

I have to add that, after talking to someone who knows this whole situation quite well, this person advised me to be careful about even sharing on a BitTorrent, 4Shared, or other website. The copyright issue still prevails even on those 'sites. It's just whether Ferrari can track you down or not--or whether the website would pull down those shared files on Ferrari's request. A 'sharer' actually being sued by Ferrari for sharing manuals on a filesharing website?; don't have any idea, but it is tempting to do. Ferrari is just plain psychotic on this issue--so totally, terribly, and enragingly wrong about it.

 

Great recommendation, thanks Bertil. Looks like they have a 'check valve' of some kind on downloading multiple manuals in one session--probably a good idea, what with with the Ferraridatabase.com situation.

 

The 360 is only volume 1. Does anyone have volume 2 ?

 

No, the 'check valve' was my making a simple mistake during the download process. The 'site works well.

 

Try this....Workshop Manual - 360 Modena - Volume 2 | How a Car Works
Bertil

 

Hello everyone. It's been a while since I have posted, but I am the admin of FerrariDiy.com. I will do my best to keep the content up and available for those that need it. Also, I would ask that if you do have an important PDF that I do not currently have listed, please email it to me, [email protected], and I will get it up and posted. I do have several ways to maintain an online database even if the simple download link approach becomes frowned upon in the future.

It is a real shame to see what happened to Ferraridatabase. I've been contacted on more than one occasion by Ferrari regarding required changes to my site, so I can say they are aware of my content. Only time will tell how long it may stay.

Thanks everyone and especially to Wil for alerting me to the issue. If you do notice any site issues let me know. If it weren't for FerrariChat, much of the site would never have happened.

 

Thanks, I've seen that site, but it doesn't combine all pages into a pdf. When you click the pdf tab, it only includes the first page of the manual. You can see all the pages, but they have to be viewed one at a time.....

 

That was my experience too. I have a request into the website to see if they will allow a download of the entire manual, no answer yet.

 

Please let us know the answer you get

 

The information in the manuals is legally the property of Ferrari SPA who have paid to have copyright protection on that information - So why is it wrong for them to enforce that copyright protection? Because you as a Ferrari owner can no longer have that information for free?

Whether you like it or not, the copyright laws stipulate that protected information cannot be redistributed without permission, and that's exactly what has been happening here!

Again I ask the simple question:

If you wrote a book or manual and went to the trouble (and expense) of getting it copyright protected so that only you could publish and distribute it, and then found out that someone else was publishing and distributing your work without your permission, would you really just ignore what they're doing? - I highly doubt it!

How about people like Napolis on here who legally owns the IP and copyright to the Ferrari P4/5? - Is it wrong that he can stop anyone copying his protected design? Surely that's not fair either! Why should he be the only one who can have that car? - Ah yes!, because he's paid to protect his rights to the information!

Be it a whole car or just information relating to a car, the IP and copyright laws exist for a reason: To protect the rights of the legal owner of the information - So how can it be wrong to enforce those rights?

 

I totally agree with you. You are truly right, but I still want the info and don't care that its copyrighted. If there was a dealer in my city I would consider hiring them to care for my car, but there isn't so I have to do it.

 

Es una verdadera lástima que haya cerrado la web, había documentos clásicos muy interesantes y ofrecía info a propietarios de todo el mundo. Un saludo desde España (Spain)