Just a word about Bentley Publishers and the CDs they sell for auto repair manuals. I purchased a CD for the 1998-2005 VW Passat some years ago and it was a nightmare reinstalling it on my computer after a hardware crash. I had to go back to Bentley’s website and get new activation numbers. Then recently I decided to deactivate  the CD and sell it since it no longer was useful to me. What grief! Bentley said after informing them about deactivating my copy I had to inform them as to whom I was going to sell and then if that buyer wanted to install it and activate it they had to pay Bentley a $45.00 service fee. Here is their reply to my email.

Thank you for your email.

In order to complete this transfer, we must ask you to please confirm whom you sold it to and supply us with the Deactivation code. Here is a link to the instructions for Deactivating the Serial Numbers: https://wiki.bentleypublishers.com/display/ebahndesktop/Deactivating

Please use the link a the bottom to reply with the Deactivation key and the name of the new owner. There is a Service fee of $45.00 to the new owner for processing. Once processed, the new owner will be supplied new Serial Numbers.

This seems like a monopoly that tells the seller you cannot recuperate a fair share of your investment because your selling price plus the $45 service fee will amount to more than what a new copy from Ross-Tech would cost. Since you can sell your paper copy without all that hassle why do they lock up the rights to your CD even after you remove it from your computer and pass it along to someone who could use it? Maybe I am missing something here about copyright but aren’t the printed manuals copyrighted too? You can sell them without Bentley Publishers slapping a service fee on the buyer. I emailed them and expressed my dismay that they would require such an enormous fee for the next buyer. Now I am either stuck with a CD manual I can no longer use or I sell it for a fraction of the price I paid so the buyer isn’t hit with a service fee that runs their cost over the price of a new one. I will not purchase any CDs from them again as they seem like they are on loan to you, not a purchase.