[WikiEN-l] Slashdot: Book plagarized Wikipedia

[Ray Saintonge]

Thomas Dalton wrote:
> On 14/11/2007, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net> wrote:
>   
>> Thomas Dalton wrote:
>>     
>>>> Plagiarism isn't affected by the licence or the law. It's an academic sin,
>>>> not a legal one.
>>>>         
>>> If the licence requires attribution, then not attributing is copyright
>>> violation. Whether you call it "plagiarism" or not is irrelevant.
>>>       
>> It's not a copyright violation; it's a breach of contract.
>>     
> You can't breach a contract you never agreed to. If you say you're
> using it under the license and do so incorrectly, then yes, it's
> breach of contract, but if you just use it without reference to the
> license (which is what we're talking about here, as far as I know),
> then the license doesn't apply and it's copyright violation.
Arguing that you have not read the contract does not absolve you of its 
terms.  With many licences simply availing oneself of their benefits 
includes an implicit agreement with the terms of the licence.  This can 
be the case with shrinkwraped licences where if you break the seal, you 
agree to the licence.

Ec