Copyright and Attribution

Copyright and Attribution

by Mat Cannings -
Number of replies: 5

Hi All, I have recently been looking into copyright issues and have stumbled across a bit of a conundrum and wondered how others dealt with it.

With the Creative Commons licenses one of the conditions for usage is "You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor"

The conundrum is that I have found many sites with authors that have not specified the manner. e.g http://www.pinvoke.com/

Whilst I would always provide at least a link back to the source site and author name I sometimes would like to place the attribution on a page at the end of the document or a slide at the end of the show (like a bibliography) rather than a footer on the page or a caption on an image immediately where it was used.

If an author specified footer text or caption then of course I would do that, or consider not using that material if I felt this level of attribution not possible/suitable.

Does anyone think this is morally wrong and attribution should be prominent where used and not "tucked away"? Or have any other ideas regarding correct attribution where not specified.

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In reply to Mat Cannings

Re: Copyright and Attribution

by Johnny Hjemmeside -
From my experience, programs that are open source and were issued a public license
don't need to have this done

Once you change it dramatically, its no longer "that version" its your new version of the code.
Average of ratings: Fairly cool (2)
In reply to Johnny Hjemmeside

Re: Copyright and Attribution

by Mat Cannings -
Hi Johnny,
You are very much mistaken if you believe that is how open source software / creative commons materials work.

Almost all open source software, including Moodle, is licensed in a manner that it is free to use and modify/extend as long as all modifications are published under the same license agreement. For creative commons licensed materials it is licensed according to a specified requirement of the author which must be followed.

My initial question was regard the correct way to give acknowledgment to the people whose work I have used. To not give credit would be to 'steal' the work as it breaks the terms of use.


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In reply to Mat Cannings

Re: Copyright and Attribution

by E. L. Cooper -

from their site http://wiki.creativecommons.org/FAQ

How do I properly attribute a Creative Commons licensed work

If you are using a work licensed under one of our core licenses, then the proper way of accrediting your use of a work when you're making a verbatim use is: (1) to keep intact any copyright notices for the Work; (2) credit the author, licensor and/or other parties (such as a wiki or journal) in the manner they specify; (3) the title of the Work; and (4) the URL for the work if applicable.

You also need to provide the URL for the Creative Commons license selected with each copy of the work that you make available.

If you are making a derivative use of a work licensed under one of our core licenses, in addition to the above, you need to identify that your work is a derivative work, ie. “This is a Finnish translation of the [original work] by [author]” or “Screenplay based on [original work] by [author].” If you are using a work licensed under one of our core licenses, then the proper way of accrediting your use of a work when you're making a verbatim use is: (1) to keep intact any copyright notices for the Work; (2) credit the author, license and/or other parties (such as a wiki or journal) in the manner they specify; (3) the title of the Work; and (4) the URL for the work

Number 2 is the issue here 

here is a link to the type of further detail your authors should be providing http://www.e-blackboard.org/mod/resource/view.php?id=628 but apparently are not

If no other manor has been specified but it is part of the license...

http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Talk:Frequently_Asked_Questions

might be a better place to ask

And finally here is a link to their guidelines http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Marking

If I am using CC in a class in moodle I make an acknowledgment html  page for it in a sidebar esp if I have several sources.

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In reply to E. L. Cooper

Re: Copyright and Attribution

by Mat Cannings -
Thankyou for your useful links.

I think for the most part I will create a page at the end, kind of like a bibliography, to contain most of the attribution for icons or text used where relevant.

For some reason I had not considered placing the attribution within the image itself when using CC images, as shown here http://wiki.creativecommons.org/File:Exampleimage.png and detailed here http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Marking_Image.

I will most likely use this method where I have used an image from Flickr (or similar source) within presentation or a document.


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