[okfn-discuss] If my reports are "free, libre, open", can someone else claim they wrote them?

Sun Jul 14 00:20:16 UTC 2013

This is probably in some document, but can someone explain briefly? We wrote a number of reports about global social trends. If these reports were to be made free, libre, open (FLO), does that mean that another person, not connected with us, can pretty much publish them elsewhere and claim ownership or authorship of the reports?

My colleagues and I wrote them, and I want to retain the claim of authorship. I don't want anyone else to claim them, since we put in the work to write them.

For example, this webpage about copyleft explains the issue "The simplest way to make a program free software is to put it in the public domain, uncopyrighted. This allows people to share the program and their improvements, if they are so minded. But it also allows uncooperative people to convert the program into proprietary software. They can make changes, many or few, and distribute the result as a proprietary product. People who receive the program in that modified form do not have the freedom that the original author gave them; the middleman has stripped it away."
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/

I'm happy if people share our reports. If they make a few changes, I'm okay with "This is a slightly modified version of "report name" by Shackman, Liu and Wang. If they make a lot of changes, I'd be okay with "This report is based on "report name" by Shackman, Liu and Wang, but is significantly revised".

So what are my options? 

Gene

Gene Shackman, Ph.D.
The Global Social Change Research Project
http://gsociology.icaap.org
Free Resources for Methods in Evaluation and Social Research
http://gsociology.icaap.org/methods
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Applied Sociologist
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