Re: Re: Attribution is not required in public domainmaterials

Joseph Pietro Riolo wrote:
>
> On Wed, 4 Jun 2003, Michael Landau <mlandau[_at_]gsu.edu> wrote:

>>Oh, have you heard my new record, Landau's 5th symphony? The first 4 notes
>>are killer !

Apples and oranges, me thinks. We should make a distinction between publishing something without attribution and with false attribution.

> The academic world invented its own 11th commandment against
> plagiarism not only because they care about the honesty but
> also because they want to maintain the godlike status of
> authorship. The higher number of attributions that author
> receives, the higher his/her status is. Their obsession
> with footnotes is so high that the love of freedom of
> communication is often forgotten. The people should always
> steer away from that trap.

For whatever my opinion as a lurker on this list is worth, I disagree.

In the open source/free software world, the authors think it is perfectly fine for others to redistribute and use their creations for free and to make derivative works - even make money by using the piece of software. However, passing off someone elses work as ones own is considered a cardinal sin.

I don't care whether other people make money by using whatever software I might write and release as GPL. I don't care if they should find a brilliant idea in the source code and use that for their own needs.

But take my code and claim you wrote it!? I work in a highly technical environment. The work you are able to do is directly related to your detailed knowledge about a highly specific field. I guess the scientific term is that I live in a meritocracy. My worth as an employee is directly related to my knowledge - and my ability to prove that I have that knowledge. Claiming my work as yours is claiming that you have my knowledge. I'll be long gone when the copyright expires so I don't care about my right to attribution after the expiration of copyright protection, but as long as I'm still alive I don't want anyone else claiming my expression as their own.

-- 
LarsG