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> At 09:55 AM 9/9/97 -0400, you wrote:
> >implications for documentation? We've integrated third-party
> >spellcheckers and graphing modules into our products recently -- and
> >sometimes those products come with their own Help files. Is it legit
> >to point to that file from my own manual or online help?
>
> The original posting concerned the legality of lifting third-party
> language verbatim from the company's literature. That is a classic
> case of copyright violation. Once text is written, it belongs to the
> writer or to the writer's company. You'll need permission to reproduce
Agreed.
> The question posed here is far murkier: the implications of calls,
It's neither gray, grey or murky.
Reading WS Mendler's posting (s)he specifically states that the company
is integrating these third party widgets with their product. I assume
that Mendler's company and the third-party companies already have
agreements in place about this integration otherwise it's an issue
between the software developers and the lawyers and quite frankly I
don't see why us tech writers need be involved in the fray.
> nilly send a help call from your application to the Windows help
If you can't then I'm sure the Justice League of America would be happy
to add that concern to their list of Microsoft investigations.
> And, even more, can you modify an existing PDF-based help file
> from Adobe, say, to serve your own purposes if you don't change the
I haven't done a lot of work with PDFs but my thought is that if you are
able to (can) modify the PDF, it would be wrong. You may only modify it
(or any file), with the express permission of the author(s).
> But I can't see much of a legal position for keeping you from
> providing a link to open up somebody else's hyperdocument. After
Agreed.
> But how about links to specific topics *inside* proprietary help
> files? I may not be able to steal your exact wording and put it in
> my own help file, but what's the legality of _linking_ to that
> topic, which is, in essence, using the wording for my own
> commercial purposes? Can the help file owner forbid this? On one
The question is, why would the help file owner want to forbid it? In
Mendler's case the linking consists of, "If you want to know about this,
that or the other about third-party product X, go here". Wouldn't the
third-party product owners be more likely to get upset if their
documentation was re-written without their permission?
> If the Web is any indicator, the answer is "maybe". Just because you
The answer is "no". In any opinion I've seen or heard postings to
mailing lists, newsgroups, the Web, etc., are judged to be copyright and
under the protection of the copyright act along with all of the "fair
use" and other provisions.
You raise interesting points though.
Cheers!
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