I don't mean to be a stickler when it comes to legalities with writing, but I think it's important that there begins to be an understanding about what copyright means.  

Many writers will probably come back to you with the particular problem of copyright and the concept of what is legal to copy and what is not.  Okay, so do business people that want a specific idea or concept expressed in their own language.  

I can tell you endless examples of clients who have come up to me wanting "re-writes."  Read these articles and re-write them for me.  Read this book and re-write it for me.  In their mind, this entails new and unique content, which means it belongs to them and not the initial person who wrote it.  With this, they have justified this - I'm just "researching" the idea through this other person, and am using it to write my own materials.  

Wrong!

Seriously - this is the worst justification I have ever heard.  Not only is it plain and simple stupid, but it is also not true.  However, I realize... maybe someone doesn't know what copyright means. 

When you are talking about copyright, you aren't talking about words that can be re-written into your own words.  No.  Copyright is the ownership of intellectual property.  

If I have intellectual property, it isn't just the words that are important.  It is the IDEA behind the words.  My idea behind something that makes up this blog, for example, can't be read and re-written so someone else can have the same idea.  As soon as I post this, it belongs to me.  If someone takes it and re-writes it to use as their own, even with keeping the same title (which I see a lot), it still belongs to me because it's my idea, my words and my expression.  

So, here's where the confusion comes in.  Let's say that I'm writing a scientific report, but I don't know anything about it.  Okay - the information has to come from somewhere, right?  

But not just from one place, and not as a re-write.  That's the difference. 

If I'm writing something, I research 3 - 5 different places, then I write what I know from it.  In instances where I take information from it, I footnote it to give credit where it is due.  I keep my own ideas, my own atmosphere to the writing and I use my own intellect. I don't just take one person's whatever it is and then claim it as my own ideas.  Information is simply information.   But intellectual property belongs to the person who wrote the information. 

And on that, anyone who is re-writing things and not coming up with their own ideas... you shouldn't be thinking about writing anything at all.  If you don't have enough intellect of your own to come up with your own thoughts... well... then what are you claiming to be an expert about?

All right, with that said... I think it's time to wisen up and start offering what is truly unique about each and every one of our businesses.... not someone elses.  If anyone wants some good help with their writing, you know where to find me.