This spring, the BYU site NewsNet won first place among colleges for Web page design in a contest sponsored by the University of Missouri chapter of the Society of Newspaper Design. The site also won a second place for best college newspaper online in a contest sponsored by the trade publication Editor & Publisher.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Wade Preston Shearer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Michael Halcrow" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "BYU Unix Users Group" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, June 01, 2003 2:10 PM Subject: Re: [uug] BYU students news website giving back awards > amen. > > michael, will you forward your comments to the admins/big guys of > NewsNet? if not, can I? > > > On Saturday, May 31, 2003, at 11:18 PM, Michael Halcrow wrote: > > > On Sat, May 31, 2003 at 09:02:52PM -0600, District Webmaster wrote: > >> Did anybody else see this? > >> > >> Seems the BYU student news team is giving back an award they won for > >> their web site because their site looks similar to builder.com. > >> Personally, I don't see the resemblance. Here's a link to the yahoo > >> news story. > >> > >> http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=528&ncid=528&e=3&u=/ > >> ap/20030531/ap_on_hi_te/web_site_plagiarism > >> > >> Dave > > > > Okay, this chaps my hide. > > > > Quoth the article: > > > > "It's really clear. We made a mistake and we are apologizing for it," > > said Jim Kelly, NewsNet general manager. "It appears to be an ethical > > issue and not a legal one." > > > > ... > > > > Modifications made to the NewsNet Web site included changes to the > > color palette and to the type of line boundaries between Web page > > sections. Several icons were also altered or removed, Gibson said. > > > > ... > > > > "When you're on the Web you look around and see what you like and you > > model it," Gibson said. "These students didn't understand the nature > > of copyright, as many students on campus do not." > > > > --- > > > > Apparently Gibson does not understand the nature of copyright either. > > There is no copyright infringement going on here. I refer you to the > > Fair Use clause in title 17, chapter 1, Sec. 107: > > > > http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html > > > > For some enlightenment, I refer you to some background reading by our > > friend Stallman: > > > > http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/misinterpreting-copyright.html > > > > Whether you like the guy or not, you have to respect his point of > > view on this matter. > > > > Okay, folks. Let's pack it up and go home now. Evolution is a > > blatant rip-off of Outlook. The navigation bar on the left-hand side > > is obviously the result of developers seeing something they like, and > > (heaven forbid) modeling it. OpenOffice needs a serious smack-down > > while we're at it. Any and all Tetris clones (like the one > > coincidentally in Caldera's installation program) are completely > > inappropriate and should be immediately banned from existence in our > > society. Have you ever been inspired by someone else's work? Unless > > anything and everything you create from now on has absolutely no > > resemblance to something someone else has done before, just give it up > > right now. Forget it. Stop writing software or web pages. Stop > > doing anything at all. Go watch TV or something instead. > > > > In case no one here has noticed, NOBODY DOES ANYTHING IN A BUBBLE. > > The very nature of progress and advancement is to take work done by > > those who have gone before us, adapting it, incorporating it, and > > extending it. When we have reached the point that we are no longer > > able to do anything (and I do mean ANYTHING) that is useful to mankind > > without worrying about ``infringing'' on someone else's ideas, our > > progress and advancement literally comes to a complete halt. The > > creative force of our society is stagnated. Who we are as human > > beings is suppressed and muffled on every front with anal > > interpretations of copyright run amuck. Copyright exists to protect > > the people, rather than to ``[maximize] publication output at any > > cost.'' (Stallman's words). > > > > If CNET were to pursue something like this, I fail to see how it would > > be any different from the producers of Citizen Kane taking the > > creators of the Matrix to court over their > > ``camera-moving-through-the-window'' shot. > > > > It is one thing to copy an entire work verbatim syntactically and > > claim it as your own; it is an entirely different thing to replicate > > the semantics of another's work in yours. From what I could tell, > > there were a couple of icons copied (perhaps the greatest offense; > > heaven forbid any of us should ever copy an icon from another web > > site. Aren't many of the icons at builder.com in the public domain, > > anyway?) and some color palettes that were the same. Okay then; let > > the NewsNet team redesign the web site, completely from scratch, and I > > GUARANTEE you that I will be able to find another web site out there > > among the MILLIONS that bears a striking resemblance to it. ``Oops! > > You have two columns with black and red text! Well, here's another > > page with that exact same layout and color palette, you filthy > > copycats!!'' > > > > From what I could see in the source for both pages, there is no > > copying of any code whatsoever (at least on a preliminary glance). > > But even if there are (or had been) a few lines that have > > similarities, SO WHAT??? At what point has the NewsNet team sinned? > > When they use some of the same fonts? Colors? Icons? The same > > general layout? What if the authors of the web site were to put an > > acknowledgment at the bottom of the site, recognizing builder.com's > > site? Would there be any reason for concern then? What if there are > > 10 other sites out there that have similar color palettes, layouts, > > and icons? Do we need to scour the web for every instance of such a > > thing, lest we all become plagiarists? > > > > What if I had someone else's code open in one window, and I used it > > for reference while typing code for another program in another window? > > ``Ah, I like this tactful use of a decrementing iterator in this loop. > > I think I'll use the same technique here. And this library call seems > > most appropriate for my operation, and so I'll make that same call. > > But I don't like this approach to organizing the structure contents; I > > think I'll deviate from that a bit in my program...'' Attribution to > > the author(s) of the reference code is in order in this case, but the > > process itself is neither contrary to copyright law nor immoral. > > > > Security protocols depend on principles introduced by their > > predecessors (Diffie-Hellman, SRP, etc. all depend on the difficulty > > of discrete logarithms). Each variance of the original is used to > > solve a different problem or to give a different angle on the concept, > > but sections of each protocol can easily be found to be the exact same > > as sections of another protocol. Imagine what would happen if the > > original protocol developers started suing researchers who followed up > > on their work to fill gaps and extend functionality. The idea of this > > kind of thing happening is intolerable. > > > > We need to seriously lighten up on these issues and recognize that > > using another's work as inspiration for your own is not a bad thing, > > but rather something to be encouraged in a free and progressive > > society. Squabbling of a couple of icons and a table layout is truly > > frivolous. A verbatim syntactic copy of a web site is one thing; a > > semantic color palette and layout scheme is something else entirely. > > > > Mike > > > > PS - I found this amusing: > > > > --- > > > > Officials initially had decided to keep the Editor & Publisher award > > because it was based on content, rather than design, Kelly said. They > > reconsidered after learning Thursday that NewsNet also won the design > > award, he said. > > > > --- > > > > Considering the apology I found in the printed Daily Universe a few > > months ago, where the editors apologized for a reporter having > > plagiarized articles from other newspapers. Now *that's* something to > > worry about (claiming someone else's work as your own). > > > > Please note that my above comments are entirely my own, and do not in > > any way represent a position or statement on the part of my employer. > > > > -- > > ------------------------------------------- | --------------------- > > Michael Halcrow | [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > | > > I stole this Sig. | > > ------------------------------------------- | --------------------- > > GnuPG Keyprint: 05B5 08A8 713A 64C1 D35D 2371 2D3C FDDA 3EB6 601D > > <mime-attachment>____________________ > > BYU Unix Users Group > > http://uug.byu.edu/ > > ___________________________________________________________________ > > List Info: http://uug.byu.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uug-list > > > > ____________________ > BYU Unix Users Group > http://uug.byu.edu/ > ___________________________________________________________________ > List Info: http://uug.byu.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uug-list ____________________ BYU Unix Users Group http://uug.byu.edu/ ___________________________________________________________________ List Info: http://uug.byu.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uug-list
