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I don't think I should have to say "don't plagiarize" me every time I publish something. If I did do that, the funny thing is that it might end up having the e

I don't think I should have to say "don't plagiarize" me every time I publish something. If I did do that, the funny thing is that it might end up having the exact opposite effect! Human nature and all that. I think licenses communicate legal things. Some things, like copyleft, use copyright as a hack to inject its ethics into the legal system. But that's one specific and very intentional case, and is definitely not something that is commonplace among software licenses. (Typically, when people try to do it, it has a Not Good outcome.)

zokier 6y ago
> I don't think I should have to say "don't plagiarize" me every time I publish something No, but placing something to public domain is easily interpreted as explicit "please plagiarize", so it would be good to counter that message with something if that is not the message intended.
- burntsushi 6y ago
  > but placing something to public domain is easily interpreted as explicit "please plagiarize" I've never heard of anyone interpreting public domain as any such thing. Whenever I get an idea from the SQLite source code for example, I have never for even a single moment ever considered plagiarizing it. If public domain were really treated as you say, then movies and TV shows about Sherlock Holmes wouldn't begin (or end) with "Based on the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle." They'd just say, "Sherlock Holmes was conceived, written and created by Foo Johnson." But of course nobody does that, because plagiarism is unethical.