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Thread: A question on the authorship rights of posts and forum policy

  1. #1
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    A question on the authorship rights of posts and forum policy

    Hi,

    A certain website has come to my attention (which shall remain unnamed) which is focused on how-to articles for Ubuntu.

    From a cursory examination, it appears that this site hosts some articles that are original submissions (or at least the original attribution is missing), but many of these articles originate from posts on Ubuntu Forums - usually copied verbatim, or with some sections edited out.

    Two of my guides have been submitted to this site without my permission. Although these guides link to the original content on the forums, the attribution is at the very bottom of the post. I find this rather concerning because:

    • I did not agree to have my posts reproduced on this, or any other website besides ubuntuforums.org.
    • The articles copied from my forum posts are based on earlier revisions (so their content is outdated and possibly contains errors).
    • The website has implemented a comment system for each article, and users are posting support requests, apparently without realizing that it is not the original source.
    • The website is ad-supported*.

    *I am not against websites using an ad-supported revenue model, but I take issue with the use of other people's content to increase revenue without permission.

    While I understand that people may not take issue with their content being reproduced in this manner, I do. I often make corrections and updates to my guides, and the threads themselves serve as an appropriate way for users to request support.

    Is there a document or policy I can read that explains the rights of authorship and redistribution of content posted on the Ubuntu Forums? I feel that the reproduction of content by third parties should only be done with explicit permission (opt-in), rather than without permission as is the case now (forced opt-out).

    Regards,
    psyke83

  2. #2
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    Re: A question on the authorship rights of posts and forum policy

    http://ubuntuforums.org/announcement.php?f=48

    The second post on that page. You should email the powers that be about that one.

    ... and:

    http://ubuntuforums.org/index.php?page=about
    Last edited by Bucky Ball; July 22nd, 2009 at 06:11 AM.

  3. #3
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    Re: A question on the authorship rights of posts and forum policy

    Public forum data is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
    Last Updated 04 February 2009

    http://ubuntuforums.org/index.php?page=policy
    This account is not active.

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    Re: A question on the authorship rights of posts and forum policy

    According to the Forum Policy
    Public forum data is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

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    Re: A question on the authorship rights of posts and forum policy

    I figured it would be something like that ...

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    Re: A question on the authorship rights of posts and forum policy

    Ok, thanks for the information, folks. The CC3 license allows others to reproduce content freely (as long as it is attributed satisfactorily).

    I requested for one of the articles to be removed on that site as its information is outdated, but the comment seems to have been deleted by moderators.

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    Re: A question on the authorship rights of posts and forum policy

    Quote Originally Posted by psyke83 View Post
    Ok, thanks for the information, folks. The CC3 license allows others to reproduce content freely (as long as it is attributed satisfactorily).

    I requested for one of the articles to be removed on that site as its information is outdated, but the comment seems to have been deleted by moderators.
    If I understand licenses correctly then I would have thought that you have a legal case, provided you can prove you are the author, that they stole the article, and that the attribution is not satisfactory.

    If Creative Commons licenses can be used in court cases you could probably have them sued for it.

    Or I may be way off here.
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    Re: A question on the authorship rights of posts and forum policy

    Even if actionable, proving actual damages would be difficult.

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    Re: A question on the authorship rights of posts and forum policy

    Damages are not important, just the fact that they plagerized your work should be enough.
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    Re: A question on the authorship rights of posts and forum policy

    Quote Originally Posted by lukjad007 View Post
    Damages are not important, just the fact that they plagerized your work should be enough.
    Yes, I understand that and agree. I guess what I was getting at is, how much money is one willing to spend to ajudicate, simply for the purpose on punishing the wrong-doer? That's assuming that one wins.

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