285 votes

Lab colleague uses cracked software. Should I report it?

I don't feel that general academic ethics obliges you to report this, unless you have reason to believe that it might be endangering the research of the lab (giving inaccurate results, introducing ...
Nate Eldredge's user avatar
187 votes

Lab colleague uses cracked software. Should I report it?

I would stay away from his "personal laptop" in the future and avoid peeking at other people's "very personal" screens. It is not your job to report this. And you should not be looking at other people'...
user18244's user avatar
  • 5,806
138 votes

Our teacher is encouraging us to use cracked software

My advice is to just use the pirated software and not rock the boat, just like Drunken Code Monkey, for example, mentioned. This issue isn't something that you're likely to solve yourself. Instead, ...
AndrejaKo's user avatar
  • 3,473
134 votes

How to respond to a company that wants specific details on implementation of my PhD research?

It's not normal to work for a company for free, and I'd simply answer something like this: Dear X, I am glad to know that my PhD work caught your interest. I can provide more information ...
Massimo Ortolano's user avatar
129 votes

Someone I don't know contributed to my program on GitHub. Can I still present that program as my Bachelor thesis?

First, congratulations! The code you wrote for your bachelor's thesis was useful enough that other people used it to teach classes at a university level and added new features. This is a major ...
WaterMolecule's user avatar
120 votes
Accepted

Our teacher is encouraging us to use cracked software

While it is true that software cracking is inappropriate and even illegal, almost everyone around me uses cracked software That is really bad and I know it happens also in my country (Italy). However,...
Andrea Lazzarotto's user avatar
99 votes
Accepted

Academic code copied by library author

In fact something great happened: Your research did have impact in the real world and seems to be useful - not everyone can say that! When it comes to legal issues, things are usually complicated and ...
OBu's user avatar
  • 13.1k
98 votes

How to respond to a company that wants specific details on implementation of my PhD research?

Other answers make the case that you should ask for money for your services. I certainly think that is a very fair and reasonable thing to do, but rather than asking for money upfront, I would like to ...
Dan Romik's user avatar
  • 183k
86 votes
Accepted

Someone I don't know contributed to my program on GitHub. Can I still present that program as my Bachelor thesis?

Can I still present my PicoBlaze assembler and emulator as my Bachelor thesis, or will I run into problems because a part of it was written by agustiza? Do I need to write a new Bachelor thesis? ...
Kuba hasn't forgotten Monica's user avatar
82 votes

Our teacher is encouraging us to use cracked software

One thing you should absolutely avoid doing is cracking the software yourself. That opens you personally to a whole lot of legal issues (IANAL, but this is kind of obvious). If your computer is really ...
Dmitry Grigoryev's user avatar
78 votes

Is it ethical to share with students a book draft that the author no longer makes publicly available?

If the author can be contacted, ask them politely whether you may distribute the manuscript that used to be available online, explaining the purpose of your request and the size of your class. Perhaps ...
henning's user avatar
  • 35k
55 votes

Can a (predatory or fake) journal refuse to withdraw a non-published paper, even though the journal is to blame for withdrawal request?

The journal has nothing to "give back" and no basis for demanding payment. As long as the authors still hold copyright the work is theirs and theirs alone. All that is required is a ...
Buffy's user avatar
  • 343k
52 votes

How to respond to a company that wants specific details on implementation of my PhD research?

I've never worked with a commercial interest directly, but the impression I get from colleagues is that companies will take as much as they can and pay as little as possible. "It's just business" as ...
David's user avatar
  • 8,096
51 votes

My code is published as original work by a different group. What should I do?

This seems to be a clear case of plagiarism, and potentially a copyright violation. The BSD license contains a line "Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list ...
Danny Ruijters's user avatar
50 votes

How to preserve a rare version of a book respecting the copyright as well?

Discuss with the librarian - they may know what is available - ie it could be scanned while the book is refurbished and recovered. And, take the opportunity to explain to the librarian why it is ...
Solar Mike's user avatar
  • 28.2k
49 votes

Our teacher is encouraging us to use cracked software

Let's see through this step for step: Is this actually illegal? To give an extreme example: Homosexuality is in Scandinavia not only legal, but accepted in the culture including marriages while it is ...
Thorsten S.'s user avatar
  • 4,747
48 votes
Accepted

Is it ethical to share with students a book draft that the author no longer makes publicly available?

The author took a willful, deliberate action of removing the draft from its publicly available location online. The only thing we can infer from this is that he has revoked any implied approval he may ...
Dan Romik's user avatar
  • 183k
44 votes

What to do when another researcher used my results without credit in a science documentary?

I agree with your former advisor: let it slide...published information can be used by anyone in documentaries...[they] cannot cite everyone, perhaps even anyone, as this is not interesting, moreover, ...
user2768's user avatar
  • 40.6k
44 votes
Accepted

Is it okay to upload code I wrote for replicating someone else’s simulation study?

You ask about uploading three different things, so it's worth answering with regard to the three parts. Your own code: Definitely acceptable to upload it. You wrote the code so the code is your ...
CrimsonDark's user avatar
  • 5,689
43 votes
Accepted

How long does it take before an academic article can no longer be kept behind a paywall?

Strictly speaking, the answer to your question is Never. Even after the copyright has expired, there is nothing to prevent a journal from keeping articles behind a paywall. Many journals will make ...
Buzz's user avatar
  • 20.3k
43 votes

Copyright Status of a Math Text

I would encourage you to contact the authors. Both John Milnor and James Stasheff have their contact info on the web. As Stasheff is emeritus, Milnor might be a better bet.
Hans Hüttel's user avatar
43 votes
Accepted

Can/should one put a copyright notice on one's CV or resume? Why/why not?

While your CV can technically be regarded as a piece of intellectual property, the usual reason why people assert their copyright to a work by putting a copyright notice on it is to deter and prevent ...
Dan Romik's user avatar
  • 183k
42 votes

Why don't academics bypass restrictions on the distribution of their papers the same way as an institutional open access policy seems to do?

The main reason is inertia and lack of information, I think. Researchers are not really aware of the costs their institutions have to face to subscribe to journals. From their perspective, publishing ...
pintoch's user avatar
  • 1,704
42 votes
Accepted

Permission to include a segment from Google Maps as a figure in a publication

Why, of course you should contact Google. More precisely, the Google Permissions page states that it is okay to use Google Map images for the purposes of research assuming that you provide proper ...
Schmuddi's user avatar
  • 2,976
42 votes
Accepted

Can I publish a source code containing potential copyright violations that someone gave me at a university (updated)?

With the caveat that I am not a lawyer, the answer is "no". You have: code A, which is GPL-licensed code B, which is a derivative work of A and not GPL-licensed. The GPL license requires that all ...
Flyto's user avatar
  • 9,398
41 votes

Lab colleague uses cracked software. Should I report it?

Are you sure it is cracked software ? A 'warning' popup could just be phishing malware and you might expect that a feature to detect piracy would just shut the application down rather than just issue ...
Chris Johns's user avatar
  • 1,249
41 votes

Academic code copied by library author

Here's how I would view it: I got to do all the fun work of research and discovery. Somebody else voluntarily did the not-fun work of wrapping this work up in a nice software package. They're even ...
David Ketcheson's user avatar
40 votes
Accepted

Is it okay to keep pdfs of journal articles from my previous university when my current university does not have a subscription?

This is an interesting question -- and yet when you think about it, it's horrifying that we'd have to consider even for an instant the propriety and legality of keeping our own annotated research ...
Corvus's user avatar
  • 18k
40 votes
Accepted

I believe a publisher is infringing copyright when reproducing a figure I created. What can I do?

You attempted to use a crayon license, that is, modify the terms of an existing well-established license to better suit your needs. This is frowned upon, because it can cause legal complications. In ...
Federico Poloni's user avatar
40 votes

Private company using my dissertation

I think that your best bet is to contact the IP department at the academic institution where you did your PhD: They can inform you about your rights concerning the work you did there as a student ...
Erwan's user avatar
  • 13.5k

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