Lionel O22 Operating Instructions and Repair Manuals

If Olsens was violating somebody's rights, I expect they would have been required to take down the materials by now.

I download the Olsen's pages, combine them into one PDF, and archive them on my machine.  I also can't imagine that Lionel wouldn't jump on Olsen's if they thought the material shouldn't be there.

My son and I have an ongoing discussion about "fair use".  The ability to download and print your own copy of whatever is one of the reasons the internet was invented (also free pron).

I agree.  I unlock pdf files that apply to my stuff with this - http://www.pdfunlock.com/ , then I print them out and put them in my trains notebook.

Pete

Thanks for the try guys, but neither breaking locked files nor downloading files to store on my computer was in my request. The material I am looking for is for a publication I am putting together. Since using the material created by others (in this case, scanned documents from Olsen's or Greenberg) would require me to receive approval from them for use, I would rather have the original documents to alleviate any headaches, and to make prints for my specific need.

Totally different situation in that case.  You are correct, you'd have to obtain the rights.  However, there is no difference in having physical copies or downloading them as far as obtaining the rights to republish them.  Buying a book does not give you to right to republish parts of it.  Looking at the original post, your intended use certainly wasn't clear to me, and I suspect others as well.

Doesn't matter where you get them, you still have to request the right to use them from the copyright owner(s), even if you are in possession of the original documents.

Pete

Unless Lionel allowed them to drift into the public domain by failing to renew the copyright it seems to me that the first place to start is Lionel.

Al

Did Lionel ever bother to copyright them?