There has been some questions/confusion here on Null Byte regarding an author's rights to his or her content and what he or she can do with said content, and I wanted to (hopefully) clear that up once and for all.
If you are getting paid to produce content on Null Byte, that content is owned by WonderHowTo and may not be reproduced or translated without prior consent from WonderHowTo. If that content is being reproduced or translated outside of Null Byte or WonderHowTo without prior consent, the perpetrators will receive DMCA takedown notices for their blogs/websites.
If you are normal user, i.e., not getting paid to produce content on Null Byte, that content is owned by you, and may be reproduced or translated as long as you give authorization to do so. The person reproducing or translating the content must state this and link back to your original post for validation; that way there is no confusion where the content originated from. Without a link back, it could be seen as unauthorized plagiarized content and treated as such.
However, it's best not to actually allow someone else to copy or translate guides, as it only encourages future plagiarism (which is already a big issue for Null Byte), makes it harder for us to identify plagiarizers (to protect your intellectual property), and reduces the importance of the Null Byte community. Having content disseminated off of Null Byte could also discourage other Null Byters from contributing their knowledge here.
To reiterate, people copying and/or translating articles from Null Byte or elsewhere on WonderHowTo without consent of either WonderHowTo or the author will be banned from our site and will receive DMCA takedown notices for their blogs/websites.
Most any other questions can be answered in our ToS.
13 Responses
Please Null Byte community send these sites and blogspots abusing the copyright of null-byte to Justin Meyers. There are literally hundreds of sites plagiarizing Null Byte
I Tip My Fedora To You, Sir.
Oh, well that's good to know. I was always under the assumption that anything the unpaid users submit was property of WonderHowTo.
Thanks for clearing that up, Justin.
ghost_
There are paid users? What's the benefit?
Users like OTW are paid by WonderHowTo to produce content to generate and retain traffic flow for the website.
Although, please correct me if I'm wrong Justin.
ghost_
Interesting. I thought you meant there was like a "pro" version where you pay $5 a month to get special content.
Sorry about the confusion.
ghost_
I'm sorry but lots of articles are quoted on the Internet, with a link back to the original site and that's actually useful to diffuse the information, even if that's illegal by strictly considering the copyright law but that's tolerate by authors because they have benefits from it (more ppl know who they are, ...), or they're just ok with that.
The knowledge has to be shared and null-byte or WonderHowTo wont paid someone to think about 'will i authorize this guy to quote me or not ?' It will just be a 'NO!' or maybe a yes for a special request that the majority of us won't care about in the best case.
If we can't even use a null-byte tutorials as a ressource, let's say for an intern newsletter or other private blog (and by clearly refering to null-byte ofc) we enter in something that i may have misunderstood about this website, which is sharing the information and experience offered by a community of 'real' hackers (I hope you know what i mean) that like to give.
If I clearly undertood OTW's words (from the spanish plagia): that you'r OK with the current copyright law led by majors and money and that you want to hide behind it, i'll respect that and i'll just delete my null-byte RSS feed with pleasure.
Think about this man, and the tools you use to create your content: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman
Quoting a small excerpt and linking out for more info is different than copying or translating a full article word-for-word. This post was only about the latter. The former is tolerable in most cases and actually helps people find Null Byte and keeps them coming back as a community member. Just don't confuse the two scenarios.
To be clear, i do not support at all the copy + taking ownership of something.
There is currently a battle between classical newspapers and Google to define that 'small exerpt'. But that's only because Google is redirecting (stealing) the traffic and ads money.
I may be wrong, it depends of what you want for the future, but providing something to embed content, like an iFrame for sharing articles, or a model for export could be something useful.
As individuals, with low impact on business, even if it's different (long-term content), i just feel that this situation is ironical.
Correct me if i'm wrong but copyright laws also protect the smaller contributors against the people with money and power, as plagiarism would result in a lawsuit favoring the originator.
I think you're misunderstanding, so allow me to clarify.
"I'm sorry but lots of articles are quoted on the Internet, with a link back to the original site and that's actually useful to diffuse the information, even if that's illegal by strictly considering the copyright law but that's tolerate by authors because they have benefits from it (more ppl know who they are, ...), or they're just ok with that.
The knowledge has to be shared and null-byte or WonderHowTo wont paid someone to think about 'will i authorize this guy to quote me or not ?' It will just be a 'NO!' or maybe a yes for a special request that the majority of us won't care about in the best case."
Some authors, like OTW, are paid to produce content for WonderHowTo. This is content that WonderHowTo own because they've paid for it.
Most other authors, like myself, are not paid to produce content for WonderHowTo. This is content that is not owned by WonderHowTo, it's owned by the author.
WonderHowTo have every right to control the content they've paid for; it's theirs. If you produce content and choose to publish it on WonderHowTo, it's still your property and you're allowed to control it.
But honestly, it is not your intellectual property to redistribute as you see fit and that's the bottom line here. No matter how much you think knowledge has to be shared, it's not yours. Regardless of that fact, it's already being shared on WonderHowTo, if you feel that people would benefit from the information shared here, by all means direct them here.
ghost_
"If I clearly undertood OTW's words (from the spanish plagia): that you'r OK with the current copyright law led by majors and money and that you want to hide behind it, i'll respect that and i'll just delete my null-byte RSS feed with pleasure."
That's a shame, but ultimately your choice, just like it's WonderHowTo's choice to protect the content they pay to be produced.
"Think about this man, and the tools you use to create your content: Link"
Open source software is not at all related to this and I'm fairly certain you know that.
ghost_
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