Attension MVP's

[spareus]

I have collected lot of code samples and few files from this news group
as well as MVP's sites. Many a times I have modifies the code to suit
my requirements. I do not have a single book or never attended any
classes to learn excel or VBA. I have learnt a great deal from this NG
as well as googling the net about excel and VBA.

My friends are now many times consulting me for their problems in excel
or vba (Although I still consideer my self as novice or at the most
intermidiate level). They insist me to put my small collection on web
for referance by them. Since most of the code is from this NG and
individual MVP's sites, I fill it necessary to ask you if I can do
that.
I have put some files on net (with free web hosting services offered by
Tripod)
URL is http://xlvba1.tripod.com/

Since I am not aware of the cyber laws, I request you, in case if you
feel that anything is wrong, pl let me know and I will remove the same
from site.

Regards,

 

[Guest]

IMHO

If I publish code to this or any News Group, then it is in the public domain
and thus you are free to use it however you want.

Having said that, it would be a courtesy to acknowledge the source of any
code that you put on a web site if it isn't your own, especially if it is
useful enough to publish anyway.

thanks for asking

Patrick Molloy
Microsoft Excel MVP

 

[Harald Staff]

Hi

Speaking for myself, I see code posted in a newsgroup as public property.
However, credits to the author is the right thing to do, likewise an apology
where you lost the author's name. So yes, you can use anything I wrote
without further permission. I believe this is the general view, but wait for
some more replies.

Code from websites, on the other hand, is personal property, you are not
allowed to redistribute that.

HTH. Best wishes Harald

 

[Bob Phillips]

Quite honestly, it is very difficult to know who actually thought of
something in many cases, as the original idea may be buried in the mists of
time, or have been developed/enhanced/improved by many people.

Speaking personally, anything I publish usually consists of adaptations of
techniques I have picked up over the years, or have developed as my skills
improve. Acknowledging everyone involved would be impossible, or pointless.
Anything I publish is effectively given at that point, unless I include a
notice to the contrary (very rare), and so anyone is free to do with it as
they will.

As Harald says, if you have a specific technique or solution that you know
was first presented by person A, credit them, or better still link to their
website if they have one.

 

[spareus]

Well,
Thanks to all of you for your reply. Actually when I started pickingup
the code from NG or various sites, I only intended to keep it to myself
as a referance (Mostly I save the page by Save as in IE) so that I do
not have to search the NG or wab again for the same. So in most cases I
do not know the actual URL from where I saved it. But I have informed
the visitors for the same by putting it in BIG BOLD RED fonts. I also
put the links to MVP's sites on my links page. I think it should
suffice but still it is always better to ask experts.

Any comments/sugessions are always welcome.
Regards,

 

[spareus]

Sorry,
I forgot to include the text by which I informed the visitors of the
fact about owners/work by other. It is as given below.

PLEASE NOTE THAT MANY OF THESE FILES ARE NOT MINE. THESE FILES ARE
COLLECTED FROM THE WAB AND MIGHT BE MODIFIED BY ME. BUT THE CODE ARE
WRITTEN BY OTHER AUTHORS OR HAVE BEEN COPIED FROM THE NEWSGROUPS AND
MODIFIED TO SUIT MY REQUIREMENTS.


Regards,

 

[keepITcool]

For the files that you downloaded and copied to your site I think you
have a (serious) issue. (regardless of any disclaimers)

e.g. Stephen Bullen's Resizeable form
(although i think you renamed it from the original
at http://www.bmsltd.ie/Excel/Default.htm)


WHY not create a link to the original website?
you dont have any (legal) issues.
users get the 'latest' copies.
users get a chance to see other stuff as well


Also most (wise) people will not be able to open your XLS files
directly without losing the code. Much better to ZIP your xls files.



--
keepITcool
| www.XLsupport.com | keepITcool chello nl | amsterdam


spareus wrote :

 

[Guest]

As seems to be the consensus, anything you create based on answers in the
newsgroups is fine for you to post on your set.

However, the same can not be said for anything you read or download from a
web site. Instead of copying the items to your site, you should show a simple
description of the code/utility and provide a link to the author's site,
where the details can be viewed and the file can be downloaded.

To that end, please remove from your site all the files you downloaded from
my site (www.oaltd.co.uk or www.bmsltd.ie) and replace them with descriptions
and links.

Thanks

Stephen Bullen

 

[Dave Peterson]

First, I'm not a lawyer.

But I recently saw a post from someone who stated that his comments were
copyrighted and could not be used except for the Usenet and for google.

So if you copied code from that person, you may want to be careful (either check
with him or avoid it or just search google and use a link to that google
archive).

I think if you post the code, you may want to post a link to google archive,
too. It might make finding the context much easier. (But it will be lots more
work for you!)

 

[Dave Peterson]

Here's a link to that post.
http://tinyurl.com/94dnv

 

[Dick Kusleika]

" strictly prohibited and may result in legal action "

Yeah, right. So every time this guy answers a newsgroup post, he files with
the copyright office? That would be a pretty expensive hobby. I don't
doubt that he owns the copyright to what he posts, but if he doesn't file,
good luck trying to enforce it. And that's assuming he's in the US. If
he's in a different country than the web forum he's suing, well, I doubt
they'll be too worried.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

He doesn't need to file with the copyright office to enforce an
injunction. He, in theory, could seek compensatory damages without
filing with the copyright office, but it's hard to see what he could
claim as damage. It would need to be filed if he wants punitive damages.

I'd give the guy the benefit of the doubt that he put that message there
to make sure that his posts stay freely distributable (i.e., that a
"third party web forum" doesn't try to charge for it or otherwise
restrict access). It's probably a bit misguided, but if he's allowing
nntp, Google and Microsoft to publish it, he's not trying to restrict
access very much...

 

[Robert Bruce]

" strictly prohibited and may result in legal action "

Yeah, right. So every time this guy answers a newsgroup post, he
files with the copyright office? That would be a pretty expensive
hobby. I don't doubt that he owns the copyright to what he posts,
but if he doesn't file, good luck trying to enforce it. And that's
assuming he's in the US. If he's in a different country than the web
forum he's suing, well, I doubt they'll be too worried.

Hi Dick.

Actually, it's not meant to be that serious. It's just a comment on the fact
that something (usenet) that has been traditionally been free (in both the
'free speech' and 'free beer' senses) has started to be privatised by web
forums. This all started for me when a web site called CyclingForums in the
UK started gulping up the whole of uk.rec.cycling and presenting it for all
the world as one of its own creations including the inevitable cheesy ad
banners etc. I seriously object to the contributions I freely make to many
online communities being co-opted without my permission like this for
monetary gain by a third party. A similar issue exists with the likes of
officekb.com here.

Nothing much I can do about it, of course, except put meaningless (and,
frankly, idle) threats in my sig.

--
Rob

http://www.asta51.dsl.pipex.com/webcam/

This message is copyright Robert Bruce and intended
for distribution only via NNTP.
Dissemination via third party Web forums with the
exception of Google Groups and Microsoft Communities
is strictly prohibited and may result in legal action.

 

[Alan Beban]

He doesn't need to file with the copyright office to enforce an
injunction. He, in theory, could seek compensatory damages without
filing with the copyright office, but it's hard to see what he could
claim as damage. It would need to be filed if he wants punitive damages.

I haven't looked for a long time, but I think the law is more along the
lines that you can't get compensatory damages for periods prior to the
time that the infringer had notice of the existence of the copyright
(and a filing with the copyright office is deemed to be one form of
notice); and I wouldn't expect that filing with the copyright office
would be required for punitive damages, though the infringer's knowledge
of the existence of the copyright would certainly be one of the
requirements for punitive damages.

Alan Beban

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Actually, my use of punitive damages is a misnomer in any case - rather
than punitive damages, the copyright act allows for increases in
statutory damages above a minimum due to "willful infringements".

So an infringer is liable for compensatory damages (i.e., actual damages
plus any profits of the infringer) if the copyright has not been
registered, or actual damages plus a sliding scale of statutory damages,
depending on the degree of "willfulness", if the work is registered.
IIRC, statutory damages run from a few hundred to a few hundred thousand
dollars.

There's even more flexibility, IIRC - the copyright owner has three
months to register, so if the infringement happens within that three
months, the infringer may still be liable for statutory damages.

Several jurisdictions have, relatively recently, allowed punitive
damages as well.

In addition, the Digital Millenium Copyright Act allows for statutory
damages for infringement prior to registration (i.e., you can register
after the infringement occurs and still collect).

Further, the law also allows for seizure of the infringing work. If that
work is on a server farm (say a "web forum"), one could in theory seize
the farm after getting an injunction.

All that said, in the case of newsgroup posts, there'd be no point in
going to court, other than to harass an infringer. Aside from the lack
of actual damages, an infringer would likely have a defense of "fair
use" for anything less than a full-blown application.

 

[Robin Hammond]

Spareus,

I'm glad you like it, but as Stephen says, I'd appreciate you removing my
progress bar from your site although you are more than welcome to place a
pointer to the original on my site here:
http://www.enhanceddatasystems.com/ED/Pages/ExcelProgressBar.htm

I notice that you have added your own demo to the file. I just had a look at
the blurb I put in the class module in this file which reads:

'PROGRESS BAR CLASS
'REQUIRES INCLUSION OF frmProgress Form
'COPYRIGHT of the AUTHOR: ROBIN HAMMOND
'UPDATED: 16 September 2003
'PURPOSE: Provides a modeless user form showing progress bar, title and
three
'captions in Excel 2000 or higher. Now handles Excel 97 by using same
methods
'with progress messages written to the statusbar
'LEGAL: No commercial use or sale of this code or derivative works is
permitted
'under any circumstances without the express permission of the author.
'The author is likely to say yes if you ask nicely though.
'You may redistribute this workbook in its original form only, as
'first received from the Enhanced Datasystems website.
'For further information, please visit www.enhanceddatasystems.com
'The colour shading technique on the progress bar was done by
'Jamie Collins in response to a newsgroup challenge. Thanks Jamie.

Other than my punctuation being a bit off (and a lawyer being able to drive
a bus through the language) I think that probably sums up the general
approach of most of the community here.

For example, I use Stephen's PastePicture routine with his explicit
permission, and provide a link on my site to his routine on this page:
http://www.enhanceddatasystems.com/ED/Pages/ExcelFaceIDsImageList.htm

Anyway, good luck with the site, and if you see anything I post in the group
that you find useful, feel free to use it.

Robin Hammond
www.enhanceddatasystems.com

 

[Peter T]

Hi Robert,

I seriously object to the contributions I freely make to many
online communities being co-opted without my permission like this for
monetary gain by a third party.

Interesting and fair comments.

Seems that Google-groups has gone the way of your friends at CyclingForums,
and also use your old contributions as a source to derive an income stream
from advertisers. To my dismay, the UK version has just gone the way of its
parent.

Regards,
Peter T

 

[David McRitchie]

So far it looks like you have no content of your own, even the links page which would be
the easiest for you to create are lines ripped off from http://www.mvps.org/links.html
pasted directly into Front Page from a Front Page page. That's why the links
look exactly alike.

International copyright laws are pretty much the same throughout most of the world,


Hosting sites do not permit you to break the law; otherwise, they themselves
would be held accountable, but they would certainly shut you down if they examined
your site or received a complaint and then looked at your site..
http://info.lycos.com/legal/legal.asp#Infringement


HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

 

[spareus]

Sorry,
I could not reply due to weekend. I have noted all the comments/reply.

As noted rightly by David McRitchie, I have no content of my own.
This is surly a collection only. What I have done is to modify the code
to my requirement or some twesting just to understand how it works. I
can not have my contents. Thats just imposible for that to happen, I
must be an expert like you MVPs which is almost impossible. I am not a
programmer. I am a simple office user. When I first saw google NG, I
was facinated by what can be acheived and it just looks like magic.
This has greatly reduced my pain of collecting the data, summarise it,
preparing various reports, and automating most of my reports leaving me
free to learn more and more.

As suggested by many of you, I should remove the files and put
discriptions and link to original files, it will be huge time consuming
job. (due to fact that I have to find out the link which may or may not
be possible.

Pl give me some time. I will put links and discription as suggested
wherever I find it. If I could not trace the original link, I will
surely remove the file itself. Once that is done, I think I will be out
of all such copyright problems.

Thank you very for your valuable comments and response.

I will still approach you for any of my problems with a hope that you
will still help me out.

Regards,

So far it looks like you have no content of your own, even the links page which would be
the easiest for you to create are lines ripped off from http://www.mvps.org/links.html
pasted directly into Front Page from a Front Page page. That's why the links
look exactly alike.

International copyright laws are pretty much the same throughout most of the world,


Hosting sites do not permit you to break the law; otherwise, they themselves
would be held accountable, but they would certainly shut you down if they examined
your site or received a complaint and then looked at your site..
http://info.lycos.com/legal/legal.asp#Infringement


HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

As seems to be the consensus, anything you create based on answers in the
newsgroups is fine for you to post on your set.

However, the same can not be said for anything you read or download from a
web site. Instead of copying the items to your site, you should show a simple
description of the code/utility and provide a link to the author's site,
where the details can be viewed and the file can be downloaded.

To that end, please remove from your site all the files you downloaded from
my site (www.oaltd.co.uk or www.bmsltd.ie) and replace them with descriptions
and links.

Thanks

Stephen Bullen

 

[Dick Kusleika]

Hi Dick.

Actually, it's not meant to be that serious. It's just a comment on
the fact that something (usenet) that has been traditionally been
free (in both the 'free speech' and 'free beer' senses) has started
to be privatised by web forums. This all started for me when a web
site called CyclingForums in the UK started gulping up the whole of
uk.rec.cycling and presenting it for all the world as one of its own
creations including the inevitable cheesy ad banners etc. I seriously
object to the contributions I freely make to many online communities
being co-opted without my permission like this for monetary gain by a
third party. A similar issue exists with the likes of officekb.com
here.

Nothing much I can do about it, of course, except put meaningless
(and, frankly, idle) threats in my sig.

I definitely didn't read it that way until JE pointed it out. In that
light, I like it. To me, it says "I know I can't do anything about it, I
just want you scumbags to know that I know that you are scumbags."