Featured | Home Office Warrior

Ask Legal Andrew - Software Manual

Nov 06, 2008

Q:

Donna asks:

A software program I’m using (I bought a license) doesn’t come with printed documentation, and the online help files are dismal so I’m putting together my own documentation for the program. Now that I’ve gone through all this trouble, I’m wondering if I can turn my documentation into an ebook and sell it. If I do so, am I infringing on the software program’s copyright? Also, do I have to ask the software developer’s permission to document his program and sell the document?

A:

This is a great question! In short, you can write your own manual for the software, and you can sell it. But there is a caveat to this, so read carefully.

Software is protected by copyright law. This prevents users from making copies of the software, even for non-commercial use. When you pay for software, you are buying a license to use it on one computer.

Your license certainly enables you to learn how to use the software. And, as long as you are not copying the software, you can also teach other people how to use it. What do many tech blogs do? They provide software tutorials and tips.

The main caveat is that you shouldn’t copy any of the software’s existing manuals. Create your own, unique documentation. You will actually own the copyright in the manual that you create, even though you don’t own the copyright to the software.

I really don’t think there is anything to worry about with an idea like this. To see why, check out the computer section of your local bookstore. There will be hundreds of independently created manuals for different pieces of software.

I would include a disclaimer in the manual. Be sure it’s clear that you are not affiliated with the software creator and that you are creating the manual entirely on your own. While we’re talking about disclaimers, be sure to read mine below (this post isn’t legal advice).

This is a bi-weekly feature at Home Office Warrior. Now is your chance to send questions to an experienced attorney. Submit your questions to Andrew at andrew@homeofficewarrior.com or leave your comments here.

Disclaimer: Andrew Flusche is a licensed Virginia attorney, but these posts do not constitute legal advice, nor do they create an attorney client relationship. For legal advice, consult an attorney licensed in your jurisdiction.

Telecommuting is good for your company

Nov 04, 2008

ITworld had a post recently near and dear to my heart. Why telecommunting is good for your company gives a company some considerations to be thinking about if they are looking at giving telecommuting privileges to their staff. (There words not mine)

If it was up to me, I would say, reasons you should give your company the advantages of promoting telecommuting to your employees. Companies need to come to realize and realize quickly the huge advantages of telecommuting or teleworking. Here is the list:

Telecommuting assures business continuity

Telecommuting reduces company overhead

Telecommuting promotes productivity by reducing stress

Telecommuting means no excuses for making deadlines

Telecommuting does not necessarily reduce data security

Telecommuting does not require expensive equipment

Telecommuting keeps the family together

Just one more list of reasons companies should be seriously looking at telecommuting as an option.

Featured, Telecommuting Written By Grant Griffiths Comments (5)

Why We’re Broke and How To Fix It — IttyBiz

Nov 03, 2008

I know some of you are familiar and some of you aren’t, with IttyBiz. This is one of those sites I have in my RSS reader and read every time there is something new.

Recently I was given a sneak peak by Naomi of something new they are offering called, Online Business School.

If there was one program you should checked out this year, Online Business School should be that program. I hate to sound like a slick salesman, but the link and the program are time-sensitive, so don’t miss out. Click here to view more details

Featured Written By Grant Griffiths Comments (0)

Blog For Profit Newsletter

Oct 15, 2008

In order to continue to build the Blog For Profit community, I am thrilled to announce a way for our readers to become even more involved in the blog and that is by subscribing to our FREE members only newsletter.

The newsletter will start out as a bimonthly event and may go to a weekly. Best of all, other then giving you a brief update on the most popular posts for the last two weeks, the content will be new and fresh. It will be content only the newsletter subscribers will get. We will also include links to other blogs and even products we feel you will be interested in. And yes, when we highlight products, we may just have an affiliate with that product. But we never recommend anything we do not or would not use ourselves.

There will be special features of the newsletter, including a “Featured” blogger for each edition. Which is why we ask that you submit by email to me at grant@g2webmedia.com who you would like to nominate to be included. And yes, you can nominate yourself. Just make sure you include your email address and blog’s URL.

Submit your name and email address in the below form to be added to the newsletter community. Your privacy will be valued and your email address will not be used for any other purpose than to send this newsletter. You may unsubscribe at any time.

On submitting your email here you will be sent an email asking you to confirm your subscription. Please let me know if you have any problems with our subscription process.

While you are there, subscribe to Blog For Profit to keep up to date on new post.

Blogging, Featured Written By Grant Griffiths Comments (0)

10 Must Have Twitter Tools for the Home Office Warrior

Aug 28, 2008

As if you didn’t already know, I love twitter and what you can do with it. It has become more than just a conversation piece where you tell people “what you are doing.” If you use it right, it is really a very useful tool to use for networking and marketing. As I have said more than once, twitter is an interacting and learning tool you can use with those you connect with and who you follow. And you can follow me at @grantgriffiths.

To make your twitter experience all it can be and to use it for the great tool it is, I thought I would include 10 of the must have twitter tools you should be using.

twhirl has become my twitter client of choice. It is cross platform so you can use it on either a windoze box or on the Mac OS. It has some great features and I would encourage you to go to the link to see what all it can do.
twitterfeed is another one of those little extras you can use. I use twitterfeed to send my most recent blog post to my twitter account. By using twitterfeed, whenever I do a new post, it shows up in my twitter conversation and I don’t have to do anything. There are plugins you can use with Wordpress to accomplish this too.
twitpic lest you share photos on twitter. You can post pictures to twitpic from your phone and most of the twitter clients have built-in support for it too.
Tweet Scan gives you the ability to follow conversations that might mention keywords you want to watch. I use it to follow my own name and other keywords I want to keep track of. It is one of those tools that should be used by companies to follow what is being said on twitter about them.
tweetAhead can be used to set tweets to post in the future. You can use this if you are doing a special promotion of a new idea, product or just want to make your appearance.
My Tweeple can be used to make informed decisions when it comes to following people on twitter. You can use it to see who is following you and who you are following. And with a simple click, you can follow, unfollow, or block people all in one place.
Quotably is another way to follow the twitter conversations. What I do like about this service is that it puts the conversations in what appears to be threads. This is actually one feature I am hoping twhirl adopts soon.
tweetlater is one of those twitter tools that actually has a couple of great uses. What I use it for the most is to send a direct message to all my new followers. Whenever anyone follows me, it is set to send them a message welcoming them. You can also use it to send out tweets in the future too. But, the main thing I use it for is to send messages to followers.
twitthis is an easy way for you to send twitter messages about your blog post or Web site. You can also use it to post what you are reading to twitter and what you might be listening to or watching on the web. twitthis is a great way to give something back to twitter.
is.gd is a service that shortens URLS, which I actually like better than tinyURL. I use it with twitter when I just want to add a URL to my tweet. This is also built into twhirl, however I have found is.gd works better for me.

There are tons more twitter tools out there and I know I only scratched the surface. If you are using a twitter tool not on this list that you feel is a must have, leave a comment here so we can all share. Lets keep the conversation going.

Featured, Social Media, twitter Written By Grant Griffiths Comments (7)