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.
> Somewhat dumb thought, but, what do you think about copying
> source info. from someone else's HTML doc? You see something
> nice, so you use it in your document...
> Do you think that is a form of stealing or plagiarism?
Laurie,
Uh oh, an ethical question. Hmm, let' see...
I think that HTML is such a simple language that just about
anything you or anyone else does with it would fall under the
catagory of teaching or learning HTML. I think taking this
type of HTML code is fine.
I would draw the line with this motivation: If you are taking
the code to save yourself the time of generating the same thing
yourself, or if you are taking something that you know how to
do but are not talented enough to create yourself, then it
is wrong.
I would also most certainly not take anything that could be
considered "content": text, pictures, binary files, etc.
Formatting is copied all the time. I think that is the way
the state of the art advances.
Please do not consider me any kind of expert on ethics. I feel
out of my element answering this question.