Re: Copyright ethics

[Rose Wilcox <RWILC -at- FAST -dot- DOT -dot- STATE -dot- AZ -dot- US>]

Tim Lewis writes:
>I am a video producer and have read numerous articles on copyright and
talked
>to our company lawyer. They all tell me that the company is violating the
>copyright because the newsletter is a sales tool for the company. If they
do
>not expect to gain exposure and business from it, they would not go to the
>expense of publishing and mailing it.

This is very interesting because I just came back from Region 5 convention
and in the Multimedia presentation the copyright issue came up.   According
the information from that session, the newsletter was indeed violating
copyright.  In fact, even not-for-profit organizations can violate
copyright.  The use of copyrighted materials is not ruled by whether you are
making money or not.  If my material is copyright, it is copyrighted, and
you must have permission to use it.

>So, my question is: Do you agree that he violated the copyright and is it
>worth my time to convince him to not do it again? If so, how should I do
it?
>Mail copies of the copyright laws and related articles?

It is never worth or time and effort to convince anyone of anything, except
maybe to give us a job or to stop stepping on our toes.  My advice is to
drop it, unless it directly effects your welfare.  You brought up the
subject, now it is the company's president's responsibility to either look
into or ignore it.  It's possible that he just didn't want to admit you were
right, but has decided to change his behavior in the future.  If you press
it, you are "stepping on his toes" by pushing on his ego and you won't be
making any friends or influencing people....

Rose A. Wilcox (the A stands for "Advice Lady")
rwilc -at- fast -dot- dot -dot- state -dot- az -dot- us
Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your
temper or your self-confidence. -Robert Frost