[TriLUG] copyright question

[Phillip Rhodes]

Mike M wrote:


> More interested in ethics and personal integrity.  It strikes me that
> learning is stealing.  If you look at web source you may well be
> educated and you may not be able to prevent yourself from using what you
> learned. Then again, the nature of the web is to expose the
> HTML and CSS structure used, so the act a publishing a web site means
> that you are contributing your learning to the community. 

Yeah, I tend to agree with that.

> I am not talking about blatant copying. Instead, I refer to the 
> interpretation that can occur.

Right, that's kinda what I meant... the *line* between blatant copying
and the kind of "gain knowledge and re-use it" approach you're
talking about, is not a clear line... at least not in a legal
sense.

> You mean YANAL? :-) I am sure the attorneys of the world would love
> to have a steady stream of copyright angst riddled designers, artists,
> programmers, authors, musicians, etc. visiting them for advice. It
> strikes me that the web is dead if attorneys must be consulted before
> putting up a new page. WWW 1985-2004 RIP.

I agree...  and I was referring to a purely pragmatic point of view
earlier, based on the idea that you might be worried about getting
sued for creating something that's accidentally too similar ot something
else...


> Can I use my education?  I
> believe that I can because everything I saw was documented in my HTML
> book and I was not looking at any patented business process crap. I
> deleted some classes and added others. I changed all the class names
> and created all new graphic files. All text content was replaced. What
> I ended up with is a variation on the original look-and-feel.  

 From an ethical point of view, I would agree.  If  you learn by
looking at something somebody else did, and then use the knowledge
to create something similiar, that seems perfectly right to me.
Otherwise, how would knowledge ever spread.


-- 
When the 1st Amendment no longer protects your voice.
And when the 4th Amendment no longer protects your privacy or your stuff.
Thank God we have the 2nd Amendment to tell our elected representatives 
that enough is enough.
It's time to put "... from my cold, dead hands" back where it belongs.

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