Ethics of reusing vendor's help material -- copyright issue or commonplace practice?

Subject: Ethics of reusing vendor's help material -- copyright issue or commonplace practice?
From: Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>
To: TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>, Tom Johnson <lists -at- idratherbewriting -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 07 Aug 2006 08:40:40 -0400

Tom Johnson wondered: <<Is it commonplace or questionable to reuse a vendor's help material nearly verbatim to customize a smaller guide more focused on our audience?>>

Can't say whether it's commonplace, but it wouldn't surprise me. However, it's highly questionable and in most cases, highly illegal. If I buy a Charles Stross novel, can I now make copies and sell it to hordes of consumers without paying royalties to Stross? Darn right I can't. I can sell that one copy at a book sale, or give it to a friend, but I can't make more copies.

<<For example, our company recently purchased software that comes with a 384 page user guide. Our users will only need about 40 pages of this. I want to copy these 40 pages, change it a little to fit with our style guide, and brand it without own documentation template. However, I plan to leave the wording and screenshots mostly as is. If we've purchased this software, is it still a copyright issue?>>

Similarly, if I purchase a collection of Ray Bradbury short stories, I can't copy a chapter I particularly like and sell it via an online bookstore without paying royalties to Bradbury.

<<Any recommendations for me?>>

Yup. RTFM. <g> Specifically, check the licensing agreement: if it says you're free to distribute copies of the documentation, then by all means go ahead. If not, don't even think of doing it without a signed distribution license from the copyright holder. In fact, better to get a letter from their legal staff specifically defining that your described usage is acceptable to them and that there are no strings attached. Why take chances?

----------------------------------------------------
-- Geoff Hart
ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca / geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com
www.geoff-hart.com
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References:
Re: Crazy situation: Customer responsible for translation: From: John Posada
Ethics of reusing vendor's help material -- copyright issue or commonplace practice?: From: Tom Johnson

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