Copyrights and manuals, take II

["Geoff Hart (by way of \"Eric J. Ray\" <ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com>)" <ght -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

Gilles Cassin responded to my note that material in manuals is
copyrighted and shouldn't be used without permission by stating <<if
your purpose is to create a help or a manual for your company in
order to adapt the contents of the basic material for internal use,
you should ask permission to the software editor, making clear that
the purpose isn't making money, but giving home-users a faster/easier
way to use the software.>>

It's a good point, and one that I didn't fully address in my original
post other than through my brief statement that you can do all kinds
of fun things with other people's documentation if you can get their
permission first. For example, we've had some discussions here on
techwr-l (check the archives) initiated by techwhirlers whose
companies produce products assembled from other companies' products:
in effect, they licence each other company's documentation for use
with the assembled product, either unmodified or by obtaining the
document files and customizing them (which was the approach I'd
proposed in my original posting). In the former case, you still need
to produce some kind of integration guide to help your customers
understand how to use the composite product with the aid of the
unmodified (and thus, nonspecific) manuals. In both cases, you still
need to enter into some form of licensing agreement for the
documentation as part of the licensing agreement for the products
themselves.

--Geoff Hart @8^{)}     Pointe-Claire, Quebec
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca

"Patience comes to those who wait."--Anon.

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