IP Rights to Manager Tools materials

The basic copyright rules apply. You cannot copy mp3 files and give them away if your don't own them. You cannot copy and distribute the shownotes if you don't own them - that includes copying by printing them. This is basic copyright respect.

If you want to share the techniques from MT, a simple way to avoid any problems is to sit down and write your own notes from scratch. Copyright is not on the knowledge, it is on the presentation and creative aspect of how the notes are organized and laid out. Courtesy would dictate an acknowledgement of your source, but isn't' strictly required.

Rewrite the notes in your own words and you're more than covered legally.

Brian

Mark and Mike are the only ones who can fully answer this. The law requires a copyright holder to make reasonable efforts to defend their copyright. This does seem to be in a gray area of "fair use."

Your colleague should definitely register as a member.

Here's my advice: if you don't feel right about it, you probably shouldn't do it. (a rule which applies broadly in life...)

John

Brian & John - thank you for the advice

I especially like the quote -
[quote="jhack"]
Here's my advice: if you don't feel right about it, you probably shouldn't do it. (a rule which applies broadly in life...)
[/quote]

I am going to talk my colleague through the concept and re-iterate the need for her to become a manager tools member

Thanks for the help

Fair use is a grey area, but a very limited one. At best, you could copy or quote a few sentences, with clear attributation. You should do it for reference purposes, not to include as primary material. Printing a document in order to hand it off in a professional environment is very much outside of fair use.

Copyright is defined by international copyright treaties and pretty clearly define what is not allowable. Rewriting the knowledge in your own words and in your own format makes it your copyright and you can do whatever you want to with it.

There are items that Mike and Mark have given explicit permission to use unmodified, but they are limited to things like the example "We're starting O3s" emails.

Brian

I would like to use the Manager Tools materials to train my managers. Mike and Mark, I plan on keeping all content in it's original form, and link directly to the MT web site for the podcasts.

How can I get permission to do this? I don't plan on using any of the premium content. I know you guys work very hard on your content, and want to make sure I push as many people to your site as possible.

My recommendation is to send them an email at show@manager-tools.com and politely ask them for permission for specific use with very clear boundaries around what you are doing.

sromley,

I need to know a bit more on what you're intending to do before I can give you a good answer. If you would like to discuss on the phone, send me an email (michael AT manager-tools.com) and we can set something up.

thanks,
Mike