Patents expire, but copyrights remain in place for a long, long time.

However, I am in favor of the right to repair and have documentation and parts available to those who want them. Thankfully, documentation for most pins is available in some form or another.

As far as Gottlieb goes, it's annoying and can be expensive (especially if you have to shell out 15-20 bucks for pretty much each game you might own), but at least they're available.

https://www.eff.org/issues/right-to-repair
http://ifixit.org/right
http://repair.org/legislation/

self-repair_manifesto_1650x2550_(resized).jpg

Unfortunately, this is the case a lot of the time. I try to acquire originals if I can and then try to scan them when I have time.

I just scanned all the Allied Leisure schematics I had and uploaded them to IPDB...just waiting on them for them to be approved and published on the page.

I like each format for different reasons. Digital files for convenience. I can't even recall how many times I've gone to IPDB and downloaded a manual on the fly, or referenced my own digital archives. I like hard copies for careful study and casual perusing.

There's a risk of introducing new errors into the schematic when doing that.

Yep, I've spotted errors too. It happens. Sometimes there are revisions for the schematics, and sometimes a note in a service bulletin.

Sometimes there was a change mid-production if an issue was discovered or a part needed to be substituted due to availability or expense.

As long as it was a minor correction not needing a significant redraw, it could be corrected fairly invisibly.

However, I've seen printed schematics that had obvious corrections prior to being printed.

Up until the late 80s or early 90s, most drafting in all industries was done by hand. Then everything starting being done in CAD programs.

When doing a fresh scan of a large schematic, I use my hp 4670 and stitch them in photoshop.

At all? Or just no hard copies?

If *every* manufacturer charged for paperwork, there might not be as much resistance with Gottlieb materials. Gottlieb is just the odd-man-out.

As for artwork, part of the problem is that there are people hungry for parts that just aren't being produced--and can't be produced because of the lack of licensor approval--because of 3rd-party image licensing issues (in licensed themes), the licensor simply wanting way too much money (thus making the project infeasible), an official exclusive licensee producing sub-par products and the licensor blocking others from making a better product, or an licensor blocking anyone else from producing because it's "coming soon" even if it's actually several years to never in the making.

I just tried it. It looks like it won't load in Firefox for some reason, but it opens fine in Chrome.

http://sternpinball.com/games/ghostbusters/pro
http://sternpinball.com/upload/games/ghostbusters/pro/1959/Ghostbusters_Pro_web.pdf

[edit]: No board schematics, though

This. And I see this problem a lot with Gottlieb games. Many times on the forums, there have been posts about people not knowing what parts to order because they didn't have a manual.

Plus, you also usually need the parts catalog too.

A digital version, yes. Which they do--just pick the year, make, and model:

https://my.gmc.com/learn

I have no qualms about paying for a printed copy because there are printing costs, after all. But these days, a digital copy should be free and readily available.

Plus, hard copies will go out of print eventually. Someone might not be able to obtain a copy a few years down the road. It isn't really very resource intensive to host and distribute a digital file.

Most of the cheap in-store brands don't last too long, unfortunatley. CDs/DVD don't last forever.

I bought TDK and Verbatim media, and those discs seem to have held up well. Some of the memorex stuff I have has also held up well.

I have no idea what the terms of the license agreement are, or if PBR simply has carte blanche in regards to the handling and sale of documentation.

I have posted snippets of pages here and there to help out other pinsiders. I'm not quite sure if that falls under fair use or not, but PBR hasn't seemed to be bothered by it.

A few times when I was trying to figure out a part number, PBR has emailed me images of specific drawings of parts assemblies when I didn't have the manual handy. I'm not sure if they do that with everybody or not.

I still have a small stack of floppies stored away, though that's only what's leftover after throwing away most of them. The older ones were actually more reliable. The ones made in the early 2000s and later seemed to have high failure rates. I'd usually see 2 or 3 bad ones in a pack of 25. By that point, CDs, DVDs, and USB flash drives were taking over, so it didn't really matter too much.