[d@DCC] Unintended consequences of treating the anonymous part of the Internet as other than BY-NC-ND

[James McKinney]

Charles MacDonald wrote:

> James McKinney wrote:
>
>> Everyone intuitively knows that you can't go around copying other 
>> people's work and attributing it to yourself, or giving the 
>> impression that you are its creator. This was true even before 
>> copyright existed. I've never seen anyone disagree. If anyone here 
>> disagrees, please speak up! What constitutes "giving the impression" 
>> is up to the courts. The courts will probably ask, "Would a 
>> reasonable person believe that this site was the creator of this 
>> work?" That's a fair test.
>>
> I recall a student at Texas A&M took a large chunk of my Auto page and 
> posted it on his web site, I wrote him, ad because I saw his major on 
> the rest of his site, I cc-ed the dean.
>
> He wrote me on the sunday that he did'ent mean anything and gee was I 
> not being picky, on Monday his entire site had disapered from the 
> university server.  I often wondered if they let him stay enrolled.
>

I'm not sure what your point is. Although I said, "everyone intuitively 
knows that you can't go around copying other people's work and 
attributing it to yourself", I didn't mean to imply that people wouldn't 
do it anyway. People know they're not supposed to do a lot of things but 
they do it anyway. But because it is such a popular rule, it is that 
much easier to sue for damages when it is broken.

James