Add your comment about the new look and feel of CodeGuru

I think the problem is that the statement "Permission (which may be revoked at any time) is granted to download the material in this Site without alterations and for private and non-commercial use only" is far too rigid and may not actually be in line with the sentiment of the original author of the article available on your Site. It is simple for the author to add a Disclaimer as appears at http://codeguru.developer.com/advancedui/cj60lib.shtml which completely covers the author against copyright infringement and also allows for the library in question to be used in a commercial application without a) any mention of EarthWeb or b) any chance of litigation.

Regards.

Rail

------------
Recording Engineer/Software Developer
Rail Jon Rogut Software
http://home.earthlink.net/~railro/
[email protected]

> You are only granting us the right to publish it in all the ways we normally publish things.


Sorry, but when did I grant you the right to publish anything? You have taken material from the old CodeGuru site and posted it without asking any of the copyright owners. In the process your Terms & Conditions now (apparently) apply. Did I (or any of the other contributors) agree to this? I think not....

Robin Leatherbarrow

Yes a developer can download and use code that has been designated by the author as freely useable in commercial applications.

That's what copyright is about. The copyright of the code does not transfer to Earthweb or any user simply by submitting the code. We do not put any additional restriction on the code beyond what the author has specified in the article. And, if the author chooses to restrict the use, we choose not to post since then it is not very useful.

Yes a developer can download and use code that has been designated by the author as freely useable in commercial applications.

That's what copyright is about. The copyright of the code does not transfer to Earthweb or any user simply by submitting the code. We do not put any additional restriction on the code beyond what the author has specified in the article. And, if the author chooses to restrict the use, we choose not to post since then it is not very useful.

Hi Zafir

Sorry.. I know this isn't your headache... but can we expect EarthWeb to get their lawyers to modify the wording of their Terms & Conditions to fall in line with your comments?

Best regards and wishes.

Rail

------------
Recording Engineer/Software Developer
Rail Jon Rogut Software
http://home.earthlink.net/~railro/
[email protected]

I thought it did. I thought I indicated that the author can grant any rights to anybody, because they pwn the copyright. How is that unclear?

Mark Schlack
VP, World Wide
Content
EarthWeb

I will indeed ask our lawyers about language that clarifies this. I'm afraid that will have to wait until after the holiday weekend. But let me state again, that nothing in our Terms & Conditions contradicts Zafir's comments or Codeguru's traditional policies.

Mark Schlack

The site went live on developer.com on 9/1; it's now 9/3. We bought this site to do exactly what Codeguru has always done: bring developers together to exchange code. If there's still some issue about rights that's not clear, please explain what it is and I'll try to answer it.

Mark Schlack

Hi Rail,

I don't believe they'll do it and seriously, in this case I don't believe it is necessary. If it is your code, it remains your code even if you submit it to CodeGuru. CodeGuru cannot grant any permissions or impose any restriction to your stuff. It can do so only to stuff that it owns.

The submission guidelines clearly says that as an author you have to allow others to use it.

I know we usually don't read the legalese (at least I don't) but since this has been bandied around so much I'd really appreciate it if you could read the 'Terms and Conditions' and 'permission' document in its entirety and confirm this.

Thanks,
Zafir

Hi Rail,

I don't believe they'll do it and seriously, in this case I don't believe it is necessary. If it is your code, it remains your code even if you submit it to CodeGuru. CodeGuru cannot grant any permissions or impose any restriction to your stuff. It can do so only to stuff that it owns.

The submission guidelines clearly says that as an author you have to allow others to use it.

I know we usually don't read the legalese (at least I don't) but since this has been bandied around so much I'd really appreciate it if you could read the 'Terms and Conditions' and 'permission' document in its entirety and confirm this.

Thanks,
Zafir

You granted Codeguru the right to publish it when you uploaded it to them originally, and the owners of Codeguru have transferred those rights to us. We're not doing anything different with it than Codeguru was when it was a standalone site. We seem to have taken more words in our Terms & Conditions to describe all this, but the reality is still the same.

Mark Schlack

The site is now useless for all intents and purposes. Simply go back to the old codeguru format, and stick your new banners on there. I suspect that if you're waiting for everyone to settle down and accept the change, you'll be dissappointed. The site is hardly functional as it is now.

gary

This should only be for source code since word wrapping of source code can make it unreadable.

This should only be for source code since word wrapping of source code can make it unreadable.

Earthweb VP says:

"You granted Codeguru the right to publish it when you uploaded it to them originally, and the owners of Codeguru have transferred those rights to us."
...
"We're not doing anything different with it than Codeguru was when it was a standalone site. We seem to have taken more words in our Terms & Conditions to describe all this, but the reality is still the same."

OK, then have your legal people put a complete, simple statement saying you have no right to use or control anything uploaded to or downloaded from the codeguru site. State it in simple language that all us lay people can understand without hiring an attorney. Otherwise you guys are just pulling a Clinton on us.