Ferraridatabase.com offline

In ingles ?

 

You have the same tunnel-vision that Ferrari does. Ferrari does have the right to protect their copyrights. I have paid large amounts for many Ferrari manuals over the years, you don't speak for me on what I have obtained for 'free' or not. When Ferrari protects their copyrights on information that is 30-40 years old, they are cutting into the very heart of their most enthusiastic supporters--the DIY guys & Independents who love these cars unreservedly, and can only afford one if he/they look after it themselves.

Those DIYers & Independents (D/I) kept these cars running and loved when the factory didn't give a crap about them. When all that wonderful technical information available for 'free' or for low cost allowed that care to happen. Allowed those cars to continue running, not rotting away somewhere. How many solutions to problems have D/I come up with that the factory didn't even bother to pursue? How many of those cars would have rotted away or been cut up for scrap without us?

Now that those erstwhile 'beater' 250s, 330s, 365s--the ones WE kept going--have become a new factory 'profit center' eventually digging into the very customers who love and kept these cars alive, I do get angry about it. What will happen when Ferrari succeeds in its tech info reclamation campaign, and we D/I can no longer take care of our/customer cars? Will Ferrari tech-oriented websites slowly start atrophying away? Could be. We will be condemned to dealers who have never/seldom worked on vintage Fs, for kidnapping-ransom prices. When we can do it WAY better ourselves. I realize that this is part of a larger movement by manufacturers to control their tech info more closely--but they are WRONG to do so in some-obviously not all-cases. And it will turn around and bite them hard in the future. And they will deserve it.

 

I think a general sentiment is that Ferrari absolutely has the right to defend their information etc, but it would be nice if they either had a website (even subscription) that had the information, or they themselves supported a private entity to do it.

So complaints aren't so much saying they can't force what they did. It's saying they could either provide similar support themselves or support a private with cheap cheap licensing and create some huge goodwill.

 

Sent you a couple of files, originally acquired from Ferraridatabase.com

 

+1

 

... or download all the pages of your interest and merge them with PDFsam Basic.

 

Exactly! - And I have previously posted, it's a shame Ferrari didn't take a leaf out of the Ferraridatabase.com's book and do the same thing itself for free as a thank you gesture for all of the owners of older generation cars. Instead, Ferrari have shown that it does not really care about owners of older models!

I do not claim to "represent" anyone in this matter, and I genuinely don't give a rats rectum as to who has paid for manuals and who has downloaded them for free! - I am merely pointing out Ferrari's right to take the action that it has, and why it has felt the need to take this action.

The cold, hard facts of the matter are that the information is/and remains the property of Ferrari and they have protected it by Law. Now they are enforcing their rights!

I also don't agree with you that this is some sort of campaign to force owners of older cars to have to return to Official Ferrari Dealers only for servicing and repairs by controlling their tech info more closely for two reasons:

1) All of the information is in the owners manuals. If Ferrari were being so secretive about their cars then they would never have put the information in the manuals in the first place!

When I got My 348, I was amazed to see just how much engineering information and cutaway drawings Ferrari included in the owners manual. You try comparing a Ferrari owners manual to a BMW owners manual - BMW's manual will tell you how to operate the car and how to change light bulbs, but it wont show you how the clutch assembly goes together, or give you a cutaway drawing of the engine with all the technical information you could need to do a full engine rebuild!

The reality is, Ferrari "give away" a lot more "tech-info" in their owners manuals than most other manufacturers. Ferrari do not stop people from buying and selling the manuals, so the information is still available, all they are doing is enforcing their copyright licence to prevent their IP/information being published openly over the internet.

2) Most of the "tech-info" in the manuals is known about already, and it is far too old and out of date technology-wise to require the sort of protection that you are inferring is now being put in place.

You say that I am looking at this situation with "tunnel vision", but I'd say it's actually yourself with the tunnel vision!

You're seeing this as simply being Ferrari trying to clamp down on the information being made available to owners and enthusiasts, but the reality is, this clamp down is more about Ferrari telling the World that it will enforce it's legal rights regardless of who is breaching them.

It's the exact same situation as when they clamp down on people making unlicensed merchandise. "Joe Bloggs" making 50 unlicensed engraved glasses per year with Ferrari trademark badges on them will have no real affect financially on Ferrari, but sooner or later Ferrari will clamp down on the breach of copyright/trademark laws to enforce their legal rights.

As for this course of action "biting them hard in the future", if they didn't enforce their copyright and trademark rights then it would "bite them" far harder if they let everyone ignore the copyright/trademark laws and left everyone to do whatever they liked!

 

We're talking past each other. I don't see this as "....simply being Ferrari trying to clamp down....etc.', but trying to go further with this is non-productive. We won't change each others opinions. As I said both times before, and believe we agree on, Ferrari has the right to protect its copyrights. I will continue hoping that Ferrari will eventually see that DIY/Independents are something to be fostered, not discouraged. E.g., wouldn't it be wonderful if Ferrari started producing OEM vintage parts for an upper fair market price? A whole new large source of income for them, and bend-over eBay (for example) vendor parts prices would ease for us. Diagnostic test equipment for, say, my 550--or how about your 348--that would be affordable and understandable. Wow, what a concept. Dream on kid....

 

Ben it was a great site, thanks for the hard work. I will miss him. I learned a lot from it,а as well as he could find

 

The whole website can be made available via torrents. it's actually still online on the web if you know where to look.

 

Where are you looking ? I just did a p2p torrent search of "Ferrari Workshop"and nothing came up.

 

suppose I know what you mean ...

but you will only find the very first files in the beginning of each site ... and even that depends on file size aka only small files ..
all links further down the menues are dead

but maybe you mean something else ?

 

+1.

The site has been saved 90 times between 2005 and 2015 "on the web" but only for small files other than the few main pages.

 

Dear Ben, is it possible to restore the site but without the pictures? There was a lot of interesting information and without pictures. No pictures, no copyright.

 

This is a great example of how to keep things going.

Can someone who has the manuals do this ?
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/oput51y9x4z8yt5/AABdJ1Vog5jOdVLLcApUOV5Aa?dl=0

 

The copyright will cover the written information as well as the pictures (Why do you think people aren't printing and selling their own Harry Potter books by simply not having any pictures in or on the book? )

 

Most of the manuals and documents can be found on How a Car Works | Learn all about how cars work

Archive of the website minus documents can be found here: https://web.archive.org/web/20140819102442/http://www.ferraridatabase.com/

 

I did not mean it. Information on what car participated in what races and who is driver ?
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i was also a big Fan of this webpage and it´s very sad that it is gone...

Thx 4 all your work.

 

I seriously doubt that it was that part of the website that Ferrari objected to! - It will have been all of the owners manuals that were on the site with their copyright protected information.

Race information and pictures of drivers/cars from the period would not be copyright protected by Ferrari.

 

Thank so much for what you did Ben!
I ve no word to express gratitude.
The best site ever! No mods, no ego people, like others site.

 

I contributed to the site and used it often. How awful it was when I just found out it's gone. Shameful Ferrari! Thanks Ben it was great while it lasted.

 

I think I have downloaded all
Maybe Rob Lay can make a special link for all these pdfs

 

I imagine if a commercial operation facilitated hosting it they could find themselves liable for damages for breach of copyright let alone expect a 'cease & desist' letter from the lawyers

 

Nothing shameful about it. Every company in the world has a right and a duty to protect its copyrighted material, it is theirs not "ours". What is shameful is their refusal to make it available in any way, even for a fee.

It proper to criticize Ferrari but lets at least criticize them for that which they deserve.