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buda-base / BDRC-Lib-App

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Copyright notice #46

Closed ngawangtrinley closed 6 years ago

ngawangtrinley commented 7 years ago

Can we take out the "copyright 2017" ? It takes away some of the free and open-source spirit from the whole thing, imo.

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eroux commented 7 years ago

I think what's not clear is the meaning that is conveyed by "copyright 2017": "2017" is a valuable information, although maybe not crucial. "copyright" is less clear, maybe it conveys the meaning of:

xristy commented 7 years ago

Copyright normally attaches automatically once a work is fixed in tangible form and the app is such a form. The explicit acknowledgement that the app is copyright 2017 by BDRC (currently known at www.tbrc.org) does not contradict github availability and free-ness and open-ness. On the other hand if the development of the app was funded by the USAID contract then it may be considered a work of the United States government and in that case copyright protection may not be available. See also CC faq

eroux commented 7 years ago

I don't think anyone challenges the assumption that the app is under copyright, I think the point of the issue is to say that it is not useful to highlight it in such a strong way

xristy commented 7 years ago

I think it may in fact not be under copyright depending how the USAID contract is written and whether it was used to fund the development, of which I am not sure.

Has any user refused to access BDRC content via the app because of the presence of the copyright? Maybe just change to the © character instead of spelling it out?

eroux commented 7 years ago

I think this is a UI design issue, not a legal or technical issue...

xristy commented 7 years ago

It is perhaps both. We have a © at the bottom of www.tbrc.org and there's one at the bottom of the github page as well. There is a bit of a legal notice aspect to its appearance on the content presented to the user.