Can you explain why these manufacturers don't have PDF copies available for their customers? If they wanted to be cheap and money-grubbing they could charge for the darn PDFs or otherwise be courteous and professional and not charge at all. Isn't the correct operation of a company's product an important part of the selling process and indeed a benefit to the manufacturer? When manuals are not provided by manufacturers it says one thing to the consumer, "Screw you! You'll just have to buy the latest model if you want to know how to work it". There ought to be a law....
And yes, the "law" should apply to outfits who have gone belly-up also, for at
least 8 years!