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: Do you give permission to use your materials? From:"Michele Marques" <mmarques -at- cms400 -dot- com> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com Date:Tue, 25 Jan 2000 09:34:36 -0500
> [ deleted] A customer of ours wants to
> customize existing training manuals that I wrote. I wonder how frequently
> writers give permission to use sections of their manuals. I told our
> customer I'd waiver the copyright for them and provide them source documents
> to take sections they need for their materials. [deleted]
We do this for some documents, but not others. For example, our
reference manuals are available on-line in a format that customers
can copy the text. We do this so that customers can create their
own custom job instructions for staff - for example, combining our
description of the purposes of various data entry fields with
company standards for acceptable data entry.
For other documents we do not provide source. For example, we
have a course that we feel would benefit customers most when
taken at our site; this course is also a source of revenue for us. We
do not allow customers to copy the book for that class and do not
sell that book separately. Other documents that may not be copied
may contain proprietary information or may describe a process that
we cannot recommend if modified.
-------------------------------------------------------
Michele Marques
Lead Technical Communicator, CMS Manufacturing Systems
mmarques -at- cms400 -dot- com
905-477-4499 x280