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

[Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>]

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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