Re: Using another company's manuals

[Stephanie Gibson <sgibson -at- QWIZ -dot- COM>]

I've been in this situation before and the biggest nightmare I ever
faced was maintaining version control with 3rd party add-on software
incorporated into our software and documentation.  You must have
adequate contracts in place to provide for advance notice of updates or
upgrades, soft copy of their doc, etc.  The biggest hassle is having to
reprint your entire doc set to reflect changes to their software when
you just had thousands printed and your company detests change pages.

I agree, have a good attorney review your situation.  Be sure the
attorney is familiar with software mfg. & distribution.

Good luck,
stef

geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA wrote:
>
>  Katherin King wondered <<I'm documenting a feature which
>  integrates our software with another company's hardware. I
>  want to provide an overview of the hardware component,
>  but I don't know enough about it to write anything from
>  scratch.>>
>
>  The simple answer is that yes, the material is copyrighted,
>  and no, you can't use it without permission. Fortunately,
>  most companies are more than happy to have their products
>  advertised by another company. Just make sure you get a
>  signed permission from someone with signing authority
>  (i.e., a docs manager, not a techwhirler). Since it's hard
>  to document something you know nothing about, I'd avoid
>  trying to come up with your own description unless you take
>  the time to find out what the product actually does and
>  how... and to clear your overview with the company to make
>  sure you really understood things right.
>
>  This brings up a whole other issue: If you're going to be
>  including information produced by someone else, who is
>  legally responsible for problems that arise because of that
>  information? This is a nontrivial issue, and if your
>  company routinely bundles together products produced by
>  others, you should seek legal advice on how to protect
>  yourself from problems caused by the other company's docs.
>  Some techwhirlers should be able to provide additional
>  advice, but since your context is likely to be unique, I
>  think you'll still have to pay for a lawyer's time. This is
>  cheap career insurance, particularly since someone else is
>  paying for it!
>
>  --Geoff Hart     @8^{)}     geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
>  Disclaimer: Speaking for myself, not FERIC.
>
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