Re: Proprietary Templates?

[Jay Smith <jay@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Craig Ede wrote:
> 
<SNIP> 
> I'd search the mif for anything resembling such a copyright and 
> respect it if you find it.
<SNIP>



*** THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE *** SEE YOUR OWN ADVISOR ***

I certainly agree with Craig, however, I must go one step farther.  

"Copyright" occurs automatically as part of the act of creation.  One
does not have to "do" anything to cause a "work" to be copyrighted. 
Simply creating the "work" copyrights it.

However, to properly and fully NOTIFY others and to DEFEND a copyright,
it is important to make use of all appropriate and reasonable copyright
statements -- check with your intellectual property attorney.  (For
example, for the benefit of protection in some South American countries
you need "All Rights Reserved", etc.)

I believe that the real issue here was well stated (or at least strongly
implied) by the original poster.  

As I see it:

    The result of the act of creation is owned by the 
    creator until such time as the creator chooses to 
    grant rights to others to use or modify that creation.  
    PERIOD.

In this Internet age with its
"borrow"-somebody's-graphic-from-their-web-site mentality, we must all
remember that if we expect others to respect our creations, we must
respect theirs.

I follow this creed myself to the best of my ability.

Unfortunately, the reality of "modern corporate life" makes "doing the
right thing" maddeningly difficult.  If you ask for permission to use
somebody's template, for example, you are likely to get a defensive
"no".  Nobody in today's corporations has AUTHORITY to do anything.  So
they ask the corporate lawyers. Lawyers always say no -- that is their
job.  Thus what two reasonable people would see as a completely
reasonable situation becomes "no". 

As far as practicality is concerned, if one were to remove all
references to a creator (by going through the MIF), there MIGHT be
little way for somebody to know -- after all, there are only so many
ways to do things.  HOWEVER, let me point out that there is more in the
MIF than you may realize.  For example, my company creates some of its
own fonts.  When Table Formats are created with one of those fonts, even
if no tables are later in by a document or template, the NAME of the
font is in the MIF -- and in my case, the name of that font would
clearly not be something that should be on anybody else's computer
systems.

Jay

-- 
Jay Smith

e-mail: Jay@JaySmith.com

Jay Smith & Associates
P.O. Box 650
Snow Camp, NC  27349  USA

Phone: Int+US+336-376-9991
Toll-Free Phone in US & Canada:
	1-800-447-8267
Fax: Int+US+336-376-6750

** To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@omsys.com **
** with "unsubscribe framers" (no quotes) in the body.   **