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What does this discussion have to do with Technical Writing?
I "work for hire". My work is not copyrighted.
Just like any other craftsman, I get paid by the hour for my labor.
This ought to move to a magazine writer's list or a novelist-wanna-be
list. Anywhere but here.
John Gilger
Senior Technical Writer
Acres Gaming, Inc.
-----Original Message-----
From: Brierley, Sean [mailto:Sean -at- Quodata -dot- Com]
Sent: Tuesday, August 21, 2001 02:20 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: RE: More ethics... (for plumbers)
Well, the plumber and his ilk should understand there are different
kinds of
products and different ways to buy. If a developer had 40 houses that
needed
plumbing, should the developer expect to pay the plumber only once
because,
after all, it is only one job. Similarly, should an author write a book
that
40 people want to read, should he get paid only once?
Consider you want to buy something, and all you have to buy it with is
sheep. And, the seller requires cattle. Well, you be out of luck.
In this case, the seller requires you pay for each copy of the work.
And, if
you only are able to buy it once, then you can only have one copy.
Suppose it takes a plumber 36 hours to plumb a house. Suppose it takes a
writer 10 years to write a book. Should the pricing of these two
commodities
somehow be related? Why would we expect that these are related? A
plumber
can plumb a house in 36 hours, but Adobe takes two years plus R&D to
develop
FrameMaker. Should we say the CD product is the same as the plumbing
product?
In other words, I find the comparison between intellectual property and
physical property to be so distinct that I really cannot get a good
handle
on comparing the pricing schemes of the two as though they were the
same. I
find the analogy off-base.
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A landmark hotel, one of America's most beautiful cities, and
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IPCC 01, Oct. 24-27 in Santa Fe. http://ieeepcs.org/2001/
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