atw: Re: Copyright - legislation

  • From: "Bridget Knaus" <bridget.knaus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2003 08:11:43 +1100

Well, am I glad I was on leave yesterday! And before you get stuck into
me for taking a sickie, Michael, it was approved annual leave.=20

Can you just back off on this one, please? You apologised to me
privately but you are continuing to insinuate publicly that either I, or
my company, are indulging in activities that breach copyright. This is
not the case, as I have already assured you.=20

Bridget

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Edward Granat [mailto:megranat@xxxxxxxx]=20
Sent: Thursday, 13 November 2003 4:36 PM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Re: Copyright - legislation


Well Bill (Hall),

The person disassembling the work for that other purpose would have to
ask=20
the copyright owner.

I imagine that, if she or her company had actually taken the trouble to=20
write to the copyright holders in the first place (and the request was=20
confirmed in writing as being acceptable to them) those copyright
holders=20
might well have provided her with copies of the original files (perhaps=20
even in Word format) and the question might have never even come our way
on=20
this list.

But for what appears to be a law software firm to do this entirely the=20
wrong way round doesn't look like a well considered approach to me.

I'd say that they are asking for trouble with this backyard approach to=20
using other people's material.

The ready availability of any text does not lessen its originality or
its=20
publisher's and authors' rights.

Michael Granat
Write Ideas

At 16:29 13/11/2003 +1100, you wrote:
>Michael,
>
>I presume that you are aware that there are many companies around the=20
>world including some of the world's largest publishing houses that do=20
>exactly what you describe here.
>
>Presumably they are doing this with the knowledge and permission of the

>owners of the copyright in the legislation.=3D20
>
>Yes, there are penalties for violating copyright and moral rights by=20
>ripping off other people's work and publishing it as your own.
>
>However, my understanding was that the original request was for help=20
>with tools to facilitate internal research and use of the=20
>documentation. My guess is that this would be well within the concept=20
>of fair use of public domain materials.
>
>Regards,
>
>Bill Hall

**************************************************
To post a message to austechwriter, send the message to
austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

To subscribe to austechwriter, send a message to
austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "subscribe" in the Subject
field.

To unsubscribe, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
with "unsubscribe" in the Subject field.

To search the austechwriter archives, go to
www.freelists.org/archives/austechwriter

To contact the list administrator, send a message to
austechwriter-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
**************************************************
**************************************************
To post a message to austechwriter, send the message to 
austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

To subscribe to austechwriter, send a message to 
austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "subscribe" in the Subject field.

To unsubscribe, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 
"unsubscribe" in the Subject field.

To search the austechwriter archives, go to 
www.freelists.org/archives/austechwriter

To contact the list administrator, send a message to 
austechwriter-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
**************************************************

Other related posts: