GabiJack.com

Archive for July 21st, 2008

This is about the wrong way to profit with people’s hunger for knowledge and need for information.  I know, it’s a rant, but I just couldn’t let it go without saying something about it.  Recently, our friend Jeff Mirisola, from the SW Blogging Squad, had voiced his need for suggestions and information regarding piping and routing with SolidWorks.  I really have no idea of how to use this functionality, but I grew curious about it, since it had also been mentioned by Matt Lombard some time ago.  For that reason, and trying to help Jeff, I began searching for a new or used manual, if there was any. I didn’t find anything on eBay, or any of the used books websites where I’ve found some useful stuff in the past. I did find a website  where a SolidWorks user was offering for sale a manual that he wrote himself, but there’s no way to buy it from his website at this moment. Apparently, he went out of town and closed sales for the time being.  I sent him an email and got no answer. So, yes, I found a manual, although not really.

Far from giving up, I decided to search in a different language and among websites for online trading and shopping, like eBay, but for people in Spanish speaking countries. I figured that a manual or book in Spanish or Portuguese was still good enough, even if it wasn’t such a good translation, as it’s often the case with technical books. Well, I found manuals, alright. I found plenty of them and tons of information too. In fact, I found several websites maintained by people in Spain where pdf files of manuals and even some famous SolidWorks books were being “shared” with their members. That was bad enough, but the worst part was when I arrived to a website where a guy was offering manuals, videos and other training materials, that, as it was understood, he had created. The materials were protected by a password that you could only obtain by joining his club and forum or by contacting him by email or phone. Of course, joining his club means that he gets to advertise all kinds of stuff to you, and/or collect some money from you to allow you to access certain areas. Thinking that he may be a legitimate author, like the other guy that wrote the manual, I joined the forum and downloaded one his manuals. Well, I bet you already figured out he was not a legitimate author. His manual was an old 2005 SolidWorks training manual, in English. He removed all the copyright information from it and added a watermark with his name and logo of his site. 

In this and other websites I also found SolidWorks videos that I recognized from other blogs, and from the CADJunky. I found videos I had made!  They had been edited to remove credits to the original authors and the sound removed, because they were originally made in English.  I know it’s not like I have a copyright for my videos. I mean, I don’t write or create videos with the idea of profiting from them, so I’ve never been concerned about limiting access or distribution to anything that is on this blog. I don’t care if someone wants to copy it and give it to some friend, but I think it’s nice to at least get some recognition from your work. It really stinks when you find it somewhere else and it’s being shared or even sold as someone else’s work.  Anyway, that’s my rant. Now back to more important stuff.