There is now an ocean of protectionist user manual hoarders who fight to get to the top of search rankings that drown out the better sources. Then when you try to get a manual they put you through many JavaScript-proliferated obsticals, captchas, personal info disclosure, if you surrender your dignity and self-respect enough to successfully pawn yourself through all that enshitification and you’re lucky enough to reach the right manual in your language, then you often still cannot download the PDF beause the rotten parasites want you to repeat the process every time you need to re-read the manual (under the assumption that you are always online).
But sometimes you can get the PDF. Or maybe you snapshot every page. If you successfully unjail a manual bogarted by the protectionist data abusers, then why stop there? Other people have to deal with that garbage. So why not upload it to the free world, here:
https://archive.org/details/manuals
If you go through some pain to get the manual, surely you will have gratification in putting the manual in the hands of a more respectful custodian.
Why did I never try that?!
I have an old tractor, and the manuals for it were unavailable except for one company which scanned them, put their own cover on it, and demanded $20 for access to the PDF (over $60 for printed).
Rather than give them a dime, I located original copies of each and every book associated, purchased them (only around $25 each), scanned them myself, and uploaded my versions to Archive. Now my copies are the top result when you search the names of the manuals.
Fuck those guys.
Doing the Lord’s work 🤙
Very nice! I’ll try not to forget next time I liberate a mabaul.