[Foundation-l] Commons Usurp issue

Wed Jun 4 00:34:06 UTC 2008

On Tue, Jun 3, 2008 at 5:22 PM, Andrew Whitworth <wknight8111 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> On Tue, Jun 3, 2008 at 8:14 PM, geni <geniice at gmail.com> wrote:
> > 2008/6/4 Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com>:
> >> (and the licensing concerns that
> >> go along with that - I doubt anyone can say with absolute certainty
> >> whether such usurpation is even legal,
> >
> > It probably isn't:
>
> I would disagree, attribution to one pseudonym is just as good as
> attribution to another pseudonym. In reality, whatever the username is
> on an account, it's still represented by the same unique numeric
> identifier in the database, the user's contribution history is
> preserved, etc.
>
> If a user really wants proper legal attribution for their work, and
> want to enforce it, they are going to need more then just a pseudonym.
> If you attach your real name to your account, then your real name
> stays contant even if the account name changes.
>

Even if it were unambiguously legal to modify someone's username, I would
nonetheless contend that it is unethical to use someone content while
attributing it under a pseudonym other than the one they originally chose.

If we want to use content created by "GreenBabboon", then I think we have an
ethical obligation to continue to list its author as "GreenBabboon" and not
mess with that.  This is even more true when it comes to authors who
incorporate elements of their real name into their username.

-Robert A. Rohde