atw: Re: Copyright - legislation

  • From: Michael Edward Granat <megranat@xxxxxxxx>
  • To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 17:32:37 +1100

Have been off-line for a few days myself, Bridget (Knaus), due to a family 
tragedy.

I wasn't trying to give you a hard time or point the bone here (I did not 
for one moment presume or intend to imply that you were deliberately trying 
to breach copyright) it is just that the discussion had moved on 
significantly in its scope (depth and breadth) from what had gone before.

What I was trying to get across is that disassembling any original piece of 
work, to change it into another form for another than the way it was 
released, would require written permission from the copyright owner(s) and 
that, even though these are words and concepts being dealt with, in 
principle this is precisely the same as disassembling a software application.

Lawyers might well be swarming through your premises (not a pleasant 
thought) but none of that changes the circumstances in that, written 
permission for the intended use would be required before you could do what 
you were asked to do by your employer / client and that, had the 
originators of the material known (and consented) to that purpose in the 
first place they might well have provided you with the files that you 
wanted in the format that you wanted, so as to help you fulfill that purpose.

Then, in all likelihood, the question would have never come up on this list.

That the process of permission request and receipt were so obviously not 
followed here and that an "I'm sure we'd be allowed to use that work, 
because we're only using it for this" (she'll be right, mate) approach 
shows a lack of proper procedures for handling someone else's original work.

Near enough is never good enough when it comes to copyright material.

Cheers,

Michael Granat
Write Ideas

At 08:11 14/11/2003 +1100, you wrote:
>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

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