Useful? Almost certainly.

However its definately copyright.

Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). From memory : Chapter Three (pertaining to literature, dramatory works, music, artistic and published works etc). From memory something like ' A person may not distrubute, broadcast, publish, replicate [etc] a work.... [ etc ]...... without the permission of the author, creator or publisher.'

By placing something like that on the web a person would be both publishing and broadcasting it whether they did it for profit or not (so technically it would be at least two offences). Its not a small fine either, max penallty 5 grand per offence I think if you get busted! And thats just in Aust, however, becuase the post is to the world wide web, you'd be open to US courts too .... um, I wouldnt go there without express permission from the publisher!

This is why you can find so few automotive manuals online.

Pity, because it seems a well intended notion, but any site you posted on could be liable as well.

However, if you wrote to Rochester in the US and asked for express permission, giving your stated purpose and intention,and they agreed to it, and you adhered to their agreement (I imagine they would only consider it for limited pages - unless they consider it so out of date it is worthless to them... which... they may, but I really dont know, perhaps not the servicing course though, at a guess) then provided you had permission for express publication at a particular place (or website) and adhered only to that permission given, then that would be ok. (they may agree to one page or one slide, for instance, or maybe all of it, but... as they are selling it, urm). Another thing though to watch out for is the parallel importing provisions. If somebody else has the right to sell a published work in Australia (like a book or a training course) and a person imports that published work from overseas, and trys to sell it in competition with the body that has the right to sell it, then its called parralel importing, and the body with the right to sell it here may have a legitimate legal complaint in copyright against the unauthorised import and sale.

Its a pretty cool thing to have though!