ndanger wrote:
After all, on the web unless you take steps to prevent it, anyone can use anything you publish. It called 'copyleft' as opposed to 'copyright'.
Not so. Copyright is automatically owned by the creator or author of an original work, unless specifically reassigned otherwise (although there are certain limitations and exceptions, such as "fair use"), and the copyright owner retains control of how the work can be used/sold/copied etc. By definition, a copyrighted work can't therefore include a right to freely copy or distribute it, and it makes no difference where the work was originally published. (Web, book, recording etc.)
I think it varies a little between countries, but a work is copyrighted whether or not it has the magic "(C)" talisman on it, too.
And then there's Copyleft (among similar schemes) - which
does offer the right to freely distribute copies and modified versions of a work
provided that the same rights are preserved in modified versions of the work.
But I would guess that simply duplicating some tests which retain an attribution shouldn't cause a fuss and in the USA at least, I'd say such usage would be covered by "fair use".
Than again; I Am Not A Lawyer. (and quite happy about that too, BTW
)
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Giraffe: a ruminant with a view.