Novell today changed the inernal policy governing how employees use the internet.
One massive change for the good:
Personal websites, weblogs and other forms of online discussion are encouraged, and Novell respects employees’ use of them as a medium of selfexpression.
Obviously as a public company Novell requires that no confidential or proprietry information is posted. Novell has an ethics code that all employees are required to agree to (and electronically sign).
A good policy.
One interesting part it seems like my small print has been quoted directly in the policy 🙂
I’m confused by some of your “small print.”
The small print states, “This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.” Is that the license of the small print or the license of the blog?
You go on to state, “Note to journalists and other readers: Unless you receive express written permission to the contrary from the author of this weblog, reproduction or quotation of any statements appearing on this weblog is not authorized.” Whether or not this makes any sense depends on:
A) You answer to my first question and
B) The legal interpretation of fair use
(I understand that sharealike prohibits commercial use)
It is my understanding that you are unable to prevent a journalist or other individual for quoting a small portion of your blog in a news report, blog, novel, short story, song or whatever. These works would not so much be derivative works as they would be original expresion containing material obtained in, for lack of a better term, “public view” and used within the limits of US copyright law’s fair use doctrine.
I’m interested in your opinion on this. I am just starting up my own blog (no URL yet) and I want to be sure I understand the copyright implications of my posts.
SaladDodger
You caught me between site redesigns. 🙂 I should have re-checked the page before posting.
I have tidied the small print. I’ll post with some comments.