TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: Web Legal Issues - take II and rambling From:Barbara Karst-Sabin <barbara -at- QUOTE -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 7 Jan 1999 14:20:26 -0800
When I spoke of using other people's HTML source code as examples or
even lifing it from their page to yours, of course I was not speaking of
design issues -- the "how-to" aspect of web design/creation rather than
the "look" of a page, which is definitely a creative thing rather than a
by-the-book process.
We, many of us (and I include myself), use this list as such a
resource. There have been questions posted on structuring documents or
packages and that kind of thing, and many of us chose to respond with
suggestions. We're doing the very same thing, but in as ask-and-
receive, rather than look-and-find format. That's how people learn.
If you went to one of my online docs and copied my layout and my color
scheme and my graphics, then I would be a tad annoyed. But if you go
there and look at the way I organized my _data_, which is after all my
intellectual property in a sense, I wouldn't be upset if you used that
as an outline for your documents.
It's all very amorphous, and as Katherine Enos said, most of us are only
guessing when it comes to those kinds of rules, regulations and laws.
If we want to press copyright issues, then we'd better be prepared to
spend the money to go to court. It's been done, successfully, but you
have to have the time, the money, and the inclination.
Maybe I'm just too lazy to care, as long as I know and can prove that I
had the idea first so _I_ don't end up being the one sued!