Re^7: Style guide for error messages?

Of course, if you ask for permission, they're going to say no. The whole point of fair use is to allow you to do it anyway. Write back and make an argument that it's covered under fair use as a critique and for non-profit, educational purposes and that they might as well just agree.

It's also worth remembering that they can only copyright words, not ideas. If you're really worried, you can comment on all 256 as long as you express Damian's ideas in your own words -- that's a slight loss of fidelity, of course.

They may not like it, but while their lawyers may bluster, it's hard to imagine that they would think they could win in court.

-xdg

Code written by xdg and posted on PerlMonks is public domain. It is provided as is with no warranties, express or implied, of any kind. Posted code may not have been tested. Use of posted code is at your own risk.

Comment on Re^7: Style guide for error messages?

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Re^8: Style guide for error messages? by tilly (Archbishop) on Sep 25, 2005 at 07:19 UTC
I don't think that you're a lawyer. Furthermore I suspect that I have more experience than you do when it comes to legal copyright issues. Therefore to take your advice over my best judgement (particularly when there is a real question) would be sheer stupidity on my part. Perhaps this is a case of once bitten, twice shy, but I'm not planning to push it. Incidentally if I take a copyrighted work, and then proceed to rewrite it in my own word while making the result close to a copy of the original, then my work is a derivative of the original and I can still be in violation of copyright. Therefore if quoting all 256 recommendations is a violation of copyright, then paraphrasing all of them can be as well. A final note. O'Reilly is populated with pretty decent people. This is hardly a case of abuse on their part. They know, and I know, that a lot of people are going to buy the book just for the recommendations. I can fully understand their not wanting me to circulate that full list, and I'm not about to start a fight about it. I personally would hope that my article would encourage more people to buy the book. But that isn't my judgement call to make, it is theirs.	[reply]
Re^9: Style guide for error messages? by xdg (Monsignor) on Sep 26, 2005 at 10:52 UTC
That's too bad, as I think the community misses out. I still hope you'd consider writing your article on the 20 they will allow. (E.g. pick 20 of the 3x10 "essential" practices in the appendix.) -xdg Code written by xdg and posted on PerlMonks is public domain. It is provided as is with no warranties, express or implied, of any kind. Posted code may not have been tested. Use of posted code is at your own risk.	[reply]