It's all down to money.

The large manufacturers usually work closely with large installation companies who have a large number of clients - and want to keep it that way. The customer is just a number and the harder it is for them to switch companies the better. Greed and fear dominate.

Smaller installers will usually know their customers names and will have built up a good relationship as they return each year/6 months to maintain the system. The installer has no fear of losing his customer and is usually happy to provide the engineer manual. Service and customer relations dominate.

The car manufacturers fall into the first bracket.

My 2 cents.

Thought you guys might be interested in a post on a US security forum regarding engineer codes.....

Poster 1:

Warning to alarm owners that threaten to take alarm companies to court for failure to disclose the installer programming code. Most intelligent alarm companies either mark the panel with Copyright (date) (name of CO) or include it in the literature somewhere.

Since they are the author of the programming code, they are protected by copyright laws.

Just by filing in small claims court you will be opening your self to an unpleasent experience in a higher court, paying for the CO's legal fees ++++. Please think before you leap.

Just my advice.

Poster 2:

That is true. The program information installed in an alarm panel is considered intellectual property of the copyright holder. As such, they never have to give you any information that they don't want.

But that protection ends at the field programming. So if the default code is 1234, technically, that's copyrighted material. But if an alarm company changes that information to something else, copyright laws don't protect that information. Let's say you bought a copyrighted book on baby care. In that book it had blank spots for you to place the baby's name, birth date, weight, etc. The book is copyrighted, but not the information placed in the book.

So the programming is copyrighted but not the information placed in the data fields. That means the installer

Large kettle of fish to boil here then!

OMG that link for where the texecom ultimate kit is sold. Leads to a DIY site and it sells all the manuals for alarm systems on a disk for

OMG that link for where the texecom ultimate kit is sold. Leads to a DIY site and it sells all the manuals for alarm systems on a disk for

I'd be interested to learn why everyone else can do it, but if it's done here I get threated with legal action..

Maybe they have been threatened with legal action but ignored the threats. You/we have a concience and need to act correctly. The others are just after a quick buck.

I'd be interested to learn why everyone else can do it, but if it's done here I get threated with legal action..

i think you should give them a call and have a word..

or just have a word at IFSEC

*volunteer for the gang*

i think you should give them a call and have a word..

And a fat lot of good that would do.

The manual collection here is the second largest on the net. I get threatened with legal action for making them freely available, yet almost every other diy site can compile a small collection and charge for them or offer's them as singular links.

And a fat lot of good that would do.

The manual collection here is the second largest on the net. I get threatened with legal action for making them freely available, yet almost every other diy site can compile a small collection and charge for them or offer's them as singular links.

Tell me where I can get the largest then Dave, I'm Off

Tell me where I can get the largest then Dave, I'm Off

Ok, but it'll cost you "Entire Manuals Collection on CDROM (13776 manuals) = $3000"