Comments on: Beyond Creative Commons: uncopyright.

By: Alice

Alice — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 15:52:00 +0000

I totally agree with you Doug, but you must be careful with the fact that some people might take your work and copyright it! That’s why copyleft like GPL, L-GPL …
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft) is a better way, because I don’t want people to copyright uncopyrighted work.

By: Doug Belshaw

Doug Belshaw — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:13:00 +0000

An interesting idea, James, but:

“Use this universal tool if you are a holder of copyright or database rights, and you wish to waive all your interests in your work.”

I don’t think this applies to me?

By: Doug Belshaw

Doug Belshaw — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:23:00 +0000

That’s kind if their (and the university’s) problem, Emma. The
interesting question would be what would happen if a plagiarism
detector flagged up that they’d copied-and-pasted from this site.

What then?
Not. My. Problem. :-)

By: Foxburg

Foxburg — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:23:00 +0000

I have seen ICT students doing the current Diploma e-mail sites asking for permission to use information, I am not sure about the replies, I think the information gets used anyway, regardless of any reply or lack of it (me being cynical).
I would expect all students to reference their work properly (for example ‘google’ is insufficient), it is just about setting a standard of behaviour, if you are passing on someone elses information you say where you saw it, and give a proper reference so others can go to the original.
This is I know an ideal, as I have seen some academic fail to do this in books, I will name and shame Anna Porter here, an American Academic who tends to just give the book and author she quotes from.

By: Doug Belshaw

Doug Belshaw — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:21:00 +0000

LOL @ equating digital ideas with free love! :-D

By: James Burke

James Burke — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:05:00 +0000

How about putting all your work under CCO? http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:03:00 +0000

I really like this idea Doug -throwing your ideas out there & allowing people to do what they like with them is likely to lead to your ideas being used more often (& most likely being credited), therefore your ideas and reputation become more widespread, as does the philosophy behind it – didn’t they do this in the 1970′s with free love?!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:08:00 +0000

From the point of view of being a teacher, Doug & working with students in secondary school – how would you work with students in terms of referencing? Would you expect them to reference (unless the site had an uncopyright statement as you have?)
I’ve just been reading the research report into Student Perceptions of Referencing ( http://www.learnhigher.ac.uk/learningareas/referencing/resourcesforstaff.htm ) – and, though many see it as a bind & time consuming etc., quite a few also said that they felt that they weren’t required to do it at school at the same level as they have to at University.

So, what would you recommend students to do: In general? Those who want to use your material?

By: Doug Belshaw

Doug Belshaw — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:48:00 +0000

Neil, I respect you and your opinion, but I’m attempting to remove myself from one economy (‘everything has a cash value’) and promote another (‘ideas cannot be owned’).

As you say, if someone takes what I’ve written and deliberately misrepresents *me*, I’ve got legal comeback. If they just rip off my ideas and don’t credit me, I don’t actually care… :-)

By: Neil

Neil — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:36:00 +0000

I think releasing all rights leaves you wide open to abuse. If people take your work and use it to misrepresent you, or what you stand for, what comeback do you have (unless it is outright libellous)? To have copyright is not the same as exercising copyright for cash reward.