Learning Python

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Tue, 11 Oct 2005 18:26:58 +0900, Chris Dewin wrote:

> On Mon, 10 Oct 2005 17:20:35 +0000, dannypatterso wrote:
> 
> [snip]
> 
>>> I'm a hobby programmer using mostly BASIC(s) and some Java.  I know
>>> procedural programming and I know what encapsulation, inheritance and
>>> polymorphism are but I have very little experience in using them as
>>> I've written just a few Java programs (i.e., I guess I could use a
>>> primer in OO programming).
> 
> There was an excellent such primer on devshed, by Icarus, but they appear
> to have taken it down.
> 
> I saved a copy of it to my HD. Would there be anything morally, or legally
> wrong with me uploading it to my site?

What licence was the primer published under? Unfortunately, under
copyright law, it isn't enough for the copyright owner to merely not
prohibit redistribution, but they must explicitly allow it, e.g. under a
Creative Commons licence.

That is because when you redistribute it, you are effectively making a
copy.

I should also point out that copyright infringement not only opens you to
law suits, but in many countries is now a felony crime. For instance, here
in Australia thanks to the <sarcasm> wonderful </sarcasm> "Free" Trade
Agreement with the USA, the BSAA (our local branch of the American
Business Software Alliance) is trumpeting the fact that they can now have
company CEOs jailed for not buying enough software licences -- or, as the
case may be, buying them but not being able to find them when the BSAA
comes a knocking.

Having said all that, if you are aware of the risks, you may make a value
judgement that the copyright owner won't mind if you republish the work,
e.g. because they were giving it away for free to start with. If so, I see
nothing morally wrong with putting it up on your website. (The law may
disagree.)

-- 
Steven.