283
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 ...
- 130k
186
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'...
- 5,776
139
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, ...
- 3,483
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 ...
- 54.5k
121
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,...
- 1,221
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 ...
- 13k
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 ...
- 180k
81
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 ...
- 5,410
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 ...
- 34.2k
65
votes
Accepted
Author wants to withdraw or insist on re-reviewing at proof stage of publication
While you might be in the legal right, I think trying to publish when the author wants to withdraw is likely to be more trouble than it is worth for a small society journal. You probably don't have ...
- 184k
53
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 ...
- 7,876
51
votes
Accepted
A student posted my lab materials as a "project" on Instructables, and hid its origin as a lab assignment. How should I address this?
It seems to me that there are two orthogonal aspects to this:
Copyright
Attribution
Either of these would in my eyes justify talking to the student and/or to the websites he posted at.
Re 1, you ...
- 29.8k
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 ...
- 8,182
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 ...
- 28.1k
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 ...
- 4,697
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 ...
- 180k
47
votes
Is it legal in the US for a student to download a copy of a textbook, to study?
In general, it is not considered fair use to download the entirety of a textbook, regardless of whether or not you're a student or enrolled in a class using the textbook. Fair use normally is ...
- 172k
47
votes
Accepted
Is it legal in the US for a student to download a copy of a textbook, to study?
Short answer: Nope.
Long answer: It's complicated.
The proportion of the work copied can actually be the whole of the work (i.e. 100%), if the other parts of the fair use test provide a strong enough ...
- 1,123
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, ...
- 40.4k
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 ...
- 19.9k
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.
- 701
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 ...
- 180k
43
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 ...
- 4,409
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 ...
- 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 ...
- 2,847
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 ...
- 9,283
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 ...
- 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 ...
- 35.7k
40
votes
Accepted
Who Owns the Publishing Rights of my Ph.D. Thesis?
Did you sign an agreement to transfer copyright to someone else?
Does your university policy (example) or employment contract specify that someone else holds the copyright to your thesis?
If the ...
- 108k
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 ...
- 17.8k
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