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Is this legal (is there an explicit license allowing redistribution)?

taspeotis 4y ago
Well it’s not explicitly disallowed. http://www.paulgraham.com/gfaq.html http://www.paulgraham.com/gfaq.html > Can I mirror an essay on my site? > I'd rather you linked to it instead.
- math-dev 4y ago
  Well, the author’s preferences should be ideally followed IMHO. > I'd rather you linked to it instead. I like to keep track of which ones people read, because it gives me ideas of what to write about next. I also like to be able to fix typos.
- nivertech 4y ago
  https://web.archive.org/web/20140701175447/https://www.ycombinator.com/legal/ https://web.archive.org/web/20140701175447/https://www.ycomb... Legal TERMS OF USE When you click on a link, our server will send you the corresponding page.
  - math-dev 4y ago
    That is for YCombinator though (and also says all items are copyright YC if I read it correctly - not sure how hacker news falls into that). The absence of a copyright or license notice implies full rights to the author https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_notice https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_notice
cwillu 4y ago
There's no redistribution happening. Running code on my pc to download and view content from a copyright holder's website is commonly called “browsing the web”. Edit: strike that, the “example output” is in fact a complete copy of the intended output, not just a stub. They should probably clear that with the author or remove it.
- math-dev 4y ago
  Yeah. It just goes against the spirit of the internet to take someone’s blog and package it up as a GitHub repo without their explicit approval.
  - ofou 4y ago
    I'm using the same RSS that Paul explicitly shared on his website created by Aaron Swartz [1]. [1]: http://www.paulgraham.com/rss.html http://www.paulgraham.com/rss.html
  - jgtrosh 4y ago
    The GitHub only contains a csv with links to the blog, so it seems to respect Paul's request.
    - _aavaa_ 4y ago
      The have a releases page that contains the final epub
- paulcole 4y ago
  When someone uses the “But my HTTP requests!” defense, they’re either being intentionally obtuse, really do believe they’re in the right, or both.
_Algernon_ 4y ago
This isn't redistribution. It's a tool to download it for your own personal use. If this is illegal then so is using Firefox to browse the web page (It also fetches the content for your own personal use). If you redistribute the generated epub, that's a different issue of course (though that is just as possible to do with copy-paste or saving the html in a browser). Don't ban tools for their misuse.
- cwillu 4y ago
  The code is not redistribution. The csv is not redistribution. graham.epub and graham.mobi in the root of the project is very much redistribution. https://github.com/ofou/graham-essays/blob/main/graham.epub https://github.com/ofou/graham-essays/blob/main/graham.epub https://github.com/ofou/graham-essays/blob/main/graham.mobi https://github.com/ofou/graham-essays/blob/main/graham.mobi
  - _Algernon_ 4y ago
    You're right, I missed those. OP should probably remove those from the repository (and those on the releases page), just to stay in the clear.
terminalcommand 4y ago
I'm sure PG wouldn't mind, these essays are in public domain under his blog.
- criddell 4y ago
  They are not in the public domain.

Well it’s not explicitly disallowed. http://www.paulgraham.com/gfaq.html http://www.paulgraham.com/gfaq.html > Can I mirror an essay on my site? > I'd rather you linked to it instead.

math-dev 4y ago
Well, the author’s preferences should be ideally followed IMHO. > I'd rather you linked to it instead. I like to keep track of which ones people read, because it gives me ideas of what to write about next. I also like to be able to fix typos.
nivertech 4y ago
https://web.archive.org/web/20140701175447/https://www.ycombinator.com/legal/ https://web.archive.org/web/20140701175447/https://www.ycomb... Legal TERMS OF USE When you click on a link, our server will send you the corresponding page.
- math-dev 4y ago
  That is for YCombinator though (and also says all items are copyright YC if I read it correctly - not sure how hacker news falls into that). The absence of a copyright or license notice implies full rights to the author https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_notice https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_notice

cwillu 4y ago

There's no redistribution happening. Running code on my pc to download and view content from a copyright holder's website is commonly called “browsing the web”. Edit: strike that, the “example output” is in fact a complete copy of the intended output, not just a stub. They should probably clear that with the author or remove it.

math-dev 4y ago
Yeah. It just goes against the spirit of the internet to take someone’s blog and package it up as a GitHub repo without their explicit approval.
- ofou 4y ago
  I'm using the same RSS that Paul explicitly shared on his website created by Aaron Swartz [1]. [1]: http://www.paulgraham.com/rss.html http://www.paulgraham.com/rss.html
- jgtrosh 4y ago
  The GitHub only contains a csv with links to the blog, so it seems to respect Paul's request.
  - _aavaa_ 4y ago
    The have a releases page that contains the final epub
paulcole 4y ago
When someone uses the “But my HTTP requests!” defense, they’re either being intentionally obtuse, really do believe they’re in the right, or both.

_Algernon_ 4y ago

This isn't redistribution. It's a tool to download it for your own personal use. If this is illegal then so is using Firefox to browse the web page (It also fetches the content for your own personal use). If you redistribute the generated epub, that's a different issue of course (though that is just as possible to do with copy-paste or saving the html in a browser). Don't ban tools for their misuse.

cwillu 4y ago
The code is not redistribution. The csv is not redistribution. graham.epub and graham.mobi in the root of the project is very much redistribution. https://github.com/ofou/graham-essays/blob/main/graham.epub https://github.com/ofou/graham-essays/blob/main/graham.epub https://github.com/ofou/graham-essays/blob/main/graham.mobi https://github.com/ofou/graham-essays/blob/main/graham.mobi
- _Algernon_ 4y ago
  You're right, I missed those. OP should probably remove those from the repository (and those on the releases page), just to stay in the clear.

terminalcommand 4y ago

I'm sure PG wouldn't mind, these essays are in public domain under his blog.

criddell 4y ago
They are not in the public domain.