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[OM] Right word, wrong word (Was English Language...)

Subject: [OM] Right word, wrong word (Was English Language...)
From: hiwayman@xxxxxxx (Walt Wayman)
Date: Tue, 07 Jun 2005 18:12:24 +0000
Please understand that, while my mother taught high school English, my 
pre-school babysitter was my retired school teacher grandmother.  Then I got a 
college degree in journalism, with an English minor.  Later, after surviving 
the journalism thing, I earned my meager/meagre living by writing law-related 
stuff.  ("Stuff" is my favorite all-purpose, nebulous noun.)  My point is, I 
can't help doing this stuff, so here goes, hoping I don't offend anyone.

I have noticed that a few of you who have web sites have included a copyright 
warning stating that your photographs may not be used without "expressed" 
permission.  "Expressed" ain't the right word; "express" is.  Lose the "ed."

In law, when a word has no particular legal definition, it simply has its 
colloquial, everyday meaning, and "expressed" in ordinary usage means simply 
that somebody said something, made known their opinions or feelings, as in, "He 
expressed displeasure that the lobster was still alive and eating the turf part 
of his dinner."

On the other hand, "express" in this context means something quite different, 
it being defined in Black?s Law Dictionary this way: "Clear, definite, 
explicit, unmistakable, not dubious or ambiguous, declared in terms set forth 
in words, directly and succinctly stated and not left to inference..." and so 
on.

So, let's be using the proper terminology to warn folks that they can't use our 
stuff without "express" permission or we'll make their life a living hell.  
This distinction may seem like a little thing, but it's the kind of molehill a 
good lawyer can make a mountain out of.

Let's be careful out there, y'all.

Walt

--
"Anything more than 500 yards from 
the car just isn't photogenic." -- 
Edward Weston
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