Copyright ethics

["Larry Kunz ((919) 254-6395)" <ldkunz -at- VNET -dot- IBM -dot- COM>]

LaVonna Funkhouser wrote:

> One suggestion:  STC does have newly published Ethical Guidelines,
> and they have an Ethics Committee.  While the committee, as I
> understand it (I'm not a member of it) are not out to police the Society,
> they do print ethics questions in the newsletter/magazine, _Intercom_.
> Perhaps if you submit the problem to the column, the offender will
> get the message from the responses that he should quit his practice.

The Ethics Committee is also compiling a case book which will help
chapters and individuals apply the Society's Ethical Guidelines to
real-life issues.  As LaVonna said, the committee isn't interested
in policing the Society or the profession; it's trying to raise
members' awareness of ethics and help them make informed choices
when confronted with ethical dilemmas.

Right after I post this, I'm going to take the entire thread from
yesterday's digest and send it to John Bryan, manager of the Ethics
Committee, with the suggestion that he use it for the case book.

FWIW, in my nonlawyerly opinion, I too think it was a copyright
violation -- an easily avoidable one -- when the newsletter
published the cartoon without permission.  I don't mind so much
that it happened, but I'm dismayed by the editor's apparent
indifference when the issue was brought to his attention.
(Perhaps I'm reading too much into Tim's account, but it sure
*sounds* like indifference.)

Larry Kunz
STC Assistant to the President for Professional Development
ldkunz -at- vnet -dot- ibm -dot- com