[6535] in s-news-athena
Re: citing info on this list
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Prof. Brian Ripley)
Tue Feb 28 11:35:57 1995
Date: Tue, 28 Feb 95 16:11:01 GMT
From: ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk (Prof. Brian Ripley)
To: S-news@utstat.toronto.edu, bshipley@courrier.usherb.ca
The legal position on this probably differs by country. My
understanding is that posting something _is_ a form of publication,
and posted functions remain copyright of their author unless
they are stated otherwise. (This is one reason why Mike Meyer
wants a release from submitters to statlib.)
My policy is to treat this exactly like printed publication. That is,
to always acknowledge the source, and to ask permission unless
the usage falls under the `fair use' rules (and again, those may differ
by country) which it often will.
If posters don't give a correct name on their posting then it seems to
me that they are not claiming copyright (you don't need an address).
The difficulty is those people who quote electronically other posters
(or private correspondence) with inadequate or incorrect reference.
I would be very wary of using anything which had not been directly
posted to the list.
I expect that most people are happy to give permission. For myself,
I am happy to have all my _code_ used (with acknowledgement), but am not
happy to have my _opinions_ quoted selectively (as a couple of recent books
have done, with incorrect citations at that). However, fair use
usually allows the latter (if the citation is correct). I just think that
book authors should stand behind their own advice, not mine!
Finally, most statistical consultants have experienced being
acknowledged as helping to do something they definitely did not
recommend. Letting the acknowledgee see the proposed form solves
that one. (I am a purported co-author on a paper I did not see at all until
it was published, as a rather extreme form of unwanted acknowledgement.
My initials are wrong on the paper!)
Brian Ripley
