RE: related to the .chm files in a modular HTML Help system?

["Lydia Wong" <lydiaw -at- fpoint -dot- com>]

Hi Walden,

You asked the group about using third-party tools' help systems as part of
your own modular HTML Help system. We've just been looking at modular HTML
Help systems ourselves. Also, we create third-party tools, so I understand
why you would like to include the help files from third-party vendors with
your product.

HOWEVER, many companies that produce third-party products (including the one
I work for) have copyrights on their documentation. We explicitly prohibit
our customers from redistributing our documentation in ANY format without
our company's written permission.

If someone were to come to us and get permission, we writers would be glad
to fill them in on anything they might need to know to use our help files as
part of their system. But they'd have to have permission first. (I'm not
sure it would be necessary to tell them much--it's pretty straightforward to
add another .CHM file into your system in terms of the contents and index,
though links between the files would be problematic without topic IDs).

Just wanted to be sure you consider the copyright issues, as well as the
technical ones!

Lydia
--------------------
Lydia Wong
Technical Writer
FarPoint Technologies, Inc.
www.fpoint.com <http://www.fpoint.com>