Re: Electronic Distribution of Copyrighted User Guides

From: Jerald Gnuschke <gnuschke[_at_]technopatents.com>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1998 18:18:01 -0600

On 11/12/98, Pamela Finkel <esoteric[_at_]inch.com> wrote:
>
> A major client of mine is considering distributing their user guides
> (for custom-developed software) on CD-ROM.
>
> ...
>
> As a documentation professional for over 10 years and a copyright
> aware individual, I agree with my client's original intent to convert
> their existing Word documents into a harder-to-edit Adobe PDF format.
> (Most users have Word. Word document 'protection' is very easy to
> break. Most users do not have Adobe Acrobat editing tools - only
> viewers. This makes the PDF delivery mechanism more copyright-friendly
> IMO.)
>
> ...
>
> Some members of the working group think that delivering the
> Word documents on a CD is just fine - that there is no need to
> worry about copyright, users editing documents, or users holding
> 'us' liable for the contents of documents that look like ours but
> in fact were edited after we delivered.

I'm not sure I understand how delivering a document in PDF will protect you from derivative works. You understand that, even without a PDF editor, the text may still be copied out of a PDF document? Derivative works are still possible. Your concern about users holding 'you' liable for errors in unauthorized editions doesn't appear to be solved merely by using PDF. Perhaps you should look into some type of checksum verification such as CRC if you are worried about users relying on modified documents.  

Best regards,

Jerald Gnuschke                        PGP key on request 

Groover Bachand, 17000 Preston Road #230, Dallas TX 75248 phone 972-380-6333 x223, fax -4445,
gnuschke[_at_]technopatents.com
http://www.technopatents.com/ Received on Fri Nov 20 1998 - 00:18:28 GMT