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> If the person copies what is in the manuals word for word and
> does not note
> the source, then that is plagiarizing.
But if the company you work for owns and holds the copyright on all of the
documentation materials, then, as an agent of the copyright holder, couldn't
you use the previously written material? Legally (I'm not a lawyer), under
such a copyright situation, aren't the old author and the new one the same
legal entity(the company)? Since you can't "plagarize" your own work, isn't
it impossible for a company to do the same thing.
As far as pieces of writing that are copyrighted by the author rather than a
company, then the plagarization is tied to individuals, but with companies,
I think it would be tied to companies. Therefore, a competitor who copies
from one of your manuals would be plagarizing, but not employees of your own
company.