http://tc.eserver.org/authors/Isenberg,_Doug A bibliography of works by Isenberg, Doug in the field of technical communication. en-us Copyright (c) 2005-08 by the EServer. All rights reserved. tclib-editorial@eserver.org (TC Library Editorial Board) webmaster@eserver.org (Geoffrey Sauer) http://tc.eserver.org/images/newlogo.gif http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Isenberg,_Doug http://tc.eserver.org/12937.html http://tc.eserver.org/12937.html There's no legal reason not to include a copyright notice on every page of a printed manual, every slide of a PowerPoint presentation, or every page of a Web site. But, of course, too many copyright notices can become unruly and unattractive, so the practical question is whether there is a legal reason why copyright notices should be printed on every page of a document. http://tc.eserver.org/12939.html http://tc.eserver.org/12939.html For some reason, there is a common misconception that correspondence and other forms of communication are not subject to protection by U.S. copyright laws; however, generally, that is not true. The U.S. Copyright Act states that protection exists 'in original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression, now known or later developed, from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device.' Therefore, letters typically are protected by copyright law. http://tc.eserver.org/12940.html http://tc.eserver.org/12940.html According to the U.S. Lanham Act, a trademark is generally a 'word, name, symbol, or device, or combination thereof' that is used to 'identify and distinguish...goods, including a unique product, from those manufactured or sold by others and to indicate the source of the goods, even if that source is unknown.' Similarly, a service mark identifies and distinguishes services, rather than goods. Trademark infringement occurs when a person, without permission, uses another person's trademark or service mark in a commercial manner that is likely to cause confusion among the public. Trademark dilution, a less common legal violation, occurs when a person uses another person's famous trademark commercially without permission if doing so dilutes the distinctive quality of the trademark, even if there is no likelihood of confusion. http://tc.eserver.org/12938.html http://tc.eserver.org/12938.html Although in some parts of life, as the saying goes, 'it's easier to ask forgiveness than to ask permission,' that's certainly not true in copyright law. It's very important to ask permission, because if you don't, you could be committing copyright infringement. In some instances, you may be able to use small portions of the other company's documentation without asking permission, under the 'fair use' doctrine of copyright law. However, this doctrine is highly fact-specific and often confusing; in other words, it's impossible to provide a blanket rule about how many paragraphs or words you can copy without violating the law. http://tc.eserver.org/10651.html http://tc.eserver.org/10651.html Generally, the 'year of first publication of the work' refers to the year in which the work (such as an instruction manual) was first distributed to the public. So, a manual written and distributed companywide in 1998 should obviously contain 1998 in the copyright notice. That's the easy example! But what about your question: What happens when the manual is revised? Interestingly, the Copyright Act doesn't directly say. But the commonly accepted practice is to include multiple years in the copyright notice, indicating the various years in which various material in the overall work was first published.