December 29, 2015 at 6:42 am
Every time we share anything on the Internet we exposed it, it can be used for the good or bad, however, I believe in knowledge sharing, so if you share something in the WWW just do it without expecting anything, and maybe, some person in the other side of the world will suddenly thank you and give you the credit of your contribution.
December 29, 2015 at 7:54 am
Plagiarism is more than just copying and pasting a block of code into a blog post; plagiarism is when you present someone elses original work as your own original work.
The way I see it, when someone posts source code openly on the web, it should be considered more like a recipe for chili than an original artistic expression like poetry. Anyone who wants to can adapt it as needed for their own purpose in a production system, and they can copy it anywhere else (with or without citation) so long as you don't present it as your own original work. If the original author includes comments within the code containing their name and other contact information, then it should be considered good etiquette to retain that as well.
I mean, a simple script that returns the top 10 most expensive SQL queries is neither engineering nor art. The real credit should go to the smart folks at Microsoft who developed the framework of T-SQL language and data management views that we all build our careers upon.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
December 29, 2015 at 10:03 am
Eric M Russell (12/29/2015)
Plagiarism is more than just copying and pasting a block of code into a blog post; plagiarism is when you present someone elses original work as your own original work.
This is well said. If we write and share something with the intent of educating and assisting why should we be offended or angry when those we assist or educate use what we give them.
Is what we are doing self-expression or art or is it applied science? Are we working as software poets or software engineers? We do some very interesting things that are creative and require hard work. But we are also practical in that if another has already done it and we can use it we do not start over from scratch, we use what we have available.
Over the years I have used many code samples and pieces of code that have been available. I have also shared the solutions with others by pointing them at the blog or site I found it so the originator does get the credit. It does not limit my creativity or skill. Really it helps, for if I can use those things that are already done, I can more quickly move into the realm where I need to create something new and interesting. If I then share or post that we all benefit.
Not all gray hairs are Dinosaurs!
December 29, 2015 at 11:51 am
I occasionally rip off some ideas from chef Alton Brown and put it to good use in my kitchen. I don't think the guy would mind.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
January 4, 2016 at 5:24 am
I'm certainly happy about people using my ideas. I'm also happy about them using my code if I haven't stated for the specific chunk of code that I'm unhappy for it to be used (or my code is owned not by me but by my employer, in which case it's up to my employer not up to me to determine if it should be shared.
I don't see that people using my ideas and my code is any different from people using the various lessons I wrote on (Scottish) Gaelic and my non-poetic English translations of Gaelic poetry aimed at helping learners (I specifically placed the latter in the public domain), or the translations that I do just for fun, or just to make a contribution to a brilliant website, or as practise to improve my grasp of Spanish or German or Italian or Irish, at LyricsTranslate.com. I do somewhat object when someone claims my work as their own, but it doesn't happen often. Certainly in the field of Gaelic language support there are many others who have the same approach - most of their work is freely available for anyone to use. And even commercially valuable dictionaries (eg dictionaries between English, French, German, Italian, Spanish) are freely available on the web, as are many national dictionaries (for example both Le Trésor de la Langue Française and the French Academy's dictionary are freely available for online access, as are the Spanish Royal Academy's dictionary and the Galician Royal Academy's dictionary.
Equally, some of the academics (working in computer science and/or in mathematics) that I've known have refused to publish in journals that won't permit them to make their papers freely available on the web, because they want to share their ideas. They (like me) would be disappointed if my ideas weren't shared.
So it's pretty clear that people in most of the areas I know are strongly in favour of sharing while being against plagiarism (and other forms of dishonesty).
As for people picking stuff up off the web and using it: I do it all the time - for example many years ago I got source code for some hash functions (by ftp or email - we had the net but the web hadn't yet been invented) and used them; I've pulled in (public domain) source code for PRNGs and for ciphers and included it in things I'm doing after fairly limited testing. I've written PRNGs and hash functions and other people (not very many - this also was before the web) have picked up the source code (and the doc describing its limitations) and used them. Of course it's different when someone asks a question and gets an answer and just uses it without any attempt at all to understand it, but I think that's an unusual. Yes, I know, in our forums we have at least two regular askers of badly expressed questions who appear to (and almost certainly actually do) do that, but it seems to me that there's a tendency for the extent of this to be exagerated.
Tom
January 15, 2016 at 5:11 am
Iwas Bornready (12/29/2015)
If you don't want your code reused, don't share it.
One difficulty in this area is that some developers feel that they can do what they like with what they deem to be "their code". This is often not the case as it is frequently their employers or the client of their employers who own it.
Gaz
-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!
January 15, 2016 at 5:15 am
It is easy to attribute the work
It is morally right to give credit.
It is often a legal requirement to specify the origins.
So we should just to it.
Gaz
-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!
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