Thanks for the info. I'll look more at CC.
Gene
________________________________
From: Chris Sakkas <[email protected]>
To: Gene Shackman <[email protected]>; Open Knowledge Foundation discussion
list <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, July 13, 2013 9:04 PM
Subject: Re: [okfn-discuss] If my reports are "free, libre, open", can someone
else claim they wrote them?
Hi Gene,
Good question. It's one that comes up quite often.
The short answer is that some FLO licences require attribution. For example, CC
Attribution requires credit to be given to the original author and for the
creator/distributor of the derivative work to take 'reasonable steps' to
identify that changes were made to the work. The original author cannot dictate
the exact language to be used, however.
However, the question was about a work in the public domain. The Creative
Commons Zero licence specifically renounces the author's moral rights (which,
despite their name, are legally enforceable), which would - I believe - allow a
plagiarist to claim that they are the creator of the work without legal
repercussions. Other public domain declarations might not.
However, plagiarism is forbidden by every reputable university and journal.
Copyright law will not punish a plagiarist, but he or she will potentially
suffer severe academic and social consequences - just as I would if I submitted
the public domain On the Origin of Species as my PhD thesis, even though it
would not be a violation of copyright law for me to do so.
Hope this helps,
Chris
Chris Sakkas
Admin of the FOSsil Bank wiki and the Living Libre blog and Twitter feed.
On 13 July 2013 20:20, Gene Shackman <[email protected]> wrote:
This is probably in some document, but can someone explain briefly? We wrote a
number of reports about global social trends. If these reports were to be made
free, libre, open (FLO), does that mean that another person, not connected with
us, can pretty much publish them elsewhere and claim ownership or authorship of
the reports?
>
>
>My colleagues and I wrote them, and I want to retain the claim of authorship.
>I don't want anyone else to claim them, since we put in the work to write them.
>
>
>For example, this webpage about copyleft explains the issue "The simplest way
>to make a program free software is to put it in the public domain,
>uncopyrighted. This allows people to share the program and their improvements,
>if they are so minded. But it also allows uncooperative people to convert the
>program into proprietary software. They can make changes, many or few, and
>distribute the result as a proprietary product. People who receive the program
>in that modified form do not have the freedom that the original author gave
>them; the middleman has stripped it away."
>http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/
>
>
>
>I'm happy if people share our reports. If they make a few changes, I'm okay
>with "This is a slightly modified version of "report name" by Shackman, Liu
>and Wang. If they make a lot of changes, I'd be okay with "This report is
>based on "report name" by Shackman, Liu and Wang, but is significantly
>revised".
>
>
>So what are my options?
>
>Gene
>
>
>
>
>Gene Shackman, Ph.D.
>The Global Social Change Research Project
>http://gsociology.icaap.org
>Free Resources for Methods in Evaluation and Social Research
>http://gsociology.icaap.org/methods
>----------
>Applied Sociologist
>----------
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>okfn-discuss mailing list
>[email protected]
>http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-discuss
>Unsubscribe: http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/options/okfn-discuss
>
>
_______________________________________________
okfn-discuss mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-discuss
Unsubscribe: http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/options/okfn-discuss
