Legal Question in Technology Law in Florida
Is it legal to write a user guide for profit for a product you did not create nor do you own. For example, many people at my job use a software but many of them are older and often ask me to explain it for them. Could I write a simplistic user guide that I could offer for sale?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Writing a user guide does not violate any of the intellectual property rights of the software developer or owner.
In principle, sure. There are many such books on the market. But how you do it matters. Your guide might infringe the software's copyright hundreds of times, or not at all. Note that what matters is not just what materials (screenshots, for example) you use but how you use them. There is no way to tell you, sight unseen, whether a guide you have not yet written would violate the owner's rights.
The copyright owners might be willing to let you use some of their intellectual property in your book. After all, more people might by the software if there is a good guidebook available.
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