OpenSourceHowTo.Org

[Ben Scott]

On 5/8/07, Paul Matthews <paulie at opensourcehowto.org> wrote:
>>   What's the copyright/license status of the information on the site?
>> Of changes or new content submitted by others?
>
> I don't think i've really thought that much about that stuff ...

  You should.  Under the Berne convention (international copyright
law), any work is copyrighted from the moment of creation.  That means
no reproduction or distribution without the author's consent.  At the
same time, a site with a name like "Open Source How To" may lead to
confusion on that point.  Does the "Open Source" apply only to the
subject matter, or also to the content itself?  Can others take the
content there, modify it, redistribute it, and so on?

  These are core issues to what Open Source/Free Software is all about.

  For that matter, it isn't clear if all of the content on that site
is your original work, or derived/aggregated from other sources.  You
deserve to take credit for your own work, and should do so.  It also
allows others to formally cite your work.

> as for what is submitted by others, they can edit it once it's been
> submit, but so can I ...

  That's not necessarily automatically okay.  Submitting information
to a public site carries with it a certain implicit consent to its
publication, but further reproduction and/or modification is something
of a gray area.  Some people expect their work to remain in its
original form, and will object to publication of modifications.

  And what about third parties?  If Fred posts something, and I would
see it and would like to correct some errors and add some material,
what's the status of the resulting work?  That is pretty much the
definition of "wiki", so these are not just idle questions.

> Is there something you want to ask if you can do? or some reason you were
> asked that?

  I ask partly out of self-interest; I would like to know if the
content is Free for me to reproduce and/or modify for my own purposes.
 I also might be interested in contributing to your project, but will
only do so if the legal status is clear.  I also point out these
things because they are issues you are going to have to face
eventually, and you're much better off dealing with them sooner rather
than later.

  As John Abreau suggests, you may want to investigate adopting one of
the various Free/Open Content licenses out there.

  The Creative Commons project offers a "modular" suite of licenses to
suit one's desires.  You can allow or prohibit commercial use,
prohibit modifications, allow modifications without further
restriction, and/or allow modifications only if the modifications are
also licensed freely.  Their page of "Things to think about" is good:

http://creativecommons.org/about/think

  There is also the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL).  The GFDL
is similar to the Creative Commons license in the "Allow Modifications
if Shared Alike" mode.  (There are some differences in the details
that may make CC and GFDL content legally incompatible.)  Wikipedia is
licensed under the GFDL, for example.

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html

-- Ben