RE: Client misunderstanding of public domain

Subject: RE: Client misunderstanding of public domain
From: Susan Brown <susan -at- cookery -dot- ca>
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2007 17:02:56 -0400


I actually ended up resigning a position
as editor/executive editor for an educational
publisher over exactly this issue.

They were an interesting firm: they had
a non-profit research and development arm, and a
strictly for-profit arm. Because their materials
and resources (whether requiring outright
purchase or licensing fees or made freely
available over the net) would be used in schools,
they figured that any copyrighted material they
published was covered under individual Boards of
Education Copyright exemptions under Canadian Law
(as educational use). I pressed this issue with
them for nearly 7 months (it got increasingly
acrimonious), and they deferred their decision
again and again, which was that 'they would
pursue copyright stuff' when then had an income
stream. This was when I left, and required them
to remove my name from everywhere in any of their
publication, mails, etc. etc. (What irked me the
most is that these people would be the first to
raise bloody H-E-double-hockey-sticks if anybody
used any of their materials without paying a
moderate to substantial fee. The hypocrisy-cum-sleaze galled me.)

It was a shame, because the work and
material was some of the most interesting I had every worked on.


Susan

"There is a theory which states that if ever
anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for
and why it is here, it will instantly disappear
and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable."

"There is another theory which states that this has already happened. "

? Douglas Adams
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe,1980


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Follow-Ups:

References:
RE: Client misunderstanding of public domain: From: Kevin McLauchlan

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