Comments on: Copyright Flaw of British Prime Minister’s Website

By: Kristian

Kristian — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 02:25:30 +0000

The theme designer should have READ the “legal code” of the Creative Commons licence, not just the “human readable deed”, BEFORE distributing his content under it!

So many people misunderstand the extent of the licence, the tightly defined attribution limits and conditions, and the requirements that a URL/link must meet for it to be honoured!

The theme designer’s so called “expected attribution” doesn’t even meet the licence disclosure requirement of the Attribution-ShareAlike (BY-SA) licence. So he himself doesn’t know how to attribute work in accordance with the licence.

He’s using a name attribution suitable for the BY licence, along with an optional (non-binding) URL link that need not be retained (because the target of the link doesn’t meet the requirements of the licence) in the footer of page deign that is apparently released under an BY-SA licence.

Also, for source code and CSS, the licensing information should be included as a comment at the top of the file or portion.

I find it shocking that so many people distribute work under CC licences without understanding what it means! Then kickoff when they erroneously think that others are breaking the terms of the licence and infringing their rights.

By: Pakbuzzer.com

Pakbuzzer.com — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:52:28 +0000

Hilarious, seems to be a hit copyright scandal when it came to wordpress templates.

By: Graphic Designer

Graphic Designer — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 18:09:55 +0000

Add this to a list of government c**k ups then.
At least it’s not as bad as Gordon on You Tube, how I laughed.
Matt.

By: Devine - Dorve

Devine - Dorve — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 03:43:06 +0000

Personally, I think a high profile site like this should have at least someone who cared a little bit. I mean, 100,000 £ worths a little more than stealing (or if you like, “be inspired”) by someone else’s work. Esp when that work is put online on a “bona fide” basis.
I know WP themes are usually stolen and heavily modified to make them look like something else, but I’d expect a little more from someone charging that much. Hell, we’d do that theme 100% original without “inspirations” for 1/50 of that sum, so I really think UK government should sue NMM and make some kind of arrangement with the original author of the theme.
Even though the theme is heavily modified, I don’t think the theme author ever asked to be robbed, and at least NMM will learn not to steal (sorry “get inspired”) and work (reason which they’re being paid)

By: Adrian

Adrian — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 23:51:17 +0000

I found this page after reviewing the css of Her Majesty the Queen’s Government’s web site, because I liked the appearance and wondered where they had got it from.

What astonishes me the most is that your realisation of the copyright theft is in August 2008, and I’m discovering it now in January 2009. Have you been paid yet? I know there’s been a global banking crisis and UK plc has borrowed so much money that it (i.e. we UK taxpayers) can probably only afford open source code and blagged templates, but it is amazing that they run a TV advertising campaign about “Knock off Nigels” (targetting copyright thieves) (no doubt at great expense) and yet Number 10 is doing the very thing it tells us all is illegal.

At least in Tony Blair’s years of spin doctoring they would have removed the evidence!

By: Jeremy Clulow

Jeremy Clulow — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 09:41:36 +0000

NMM haven’t done anything *terrible” using someone else’s CSS layout code in their Number 10 theme, they’ve just made an attribution boo boo. However being exposed as ignorant of licensing law maybe a hard pill for NMM to swallow – remember they are a London New Media Agency and full of self importance. A credit somewhere would be so simple, yet when in a hole, they continue to dig and draw more attention to themselves for the wrong reasons.

NMM’s PR skills appear even worse than their Wordpress design, which is quite an achievement. The lousy way NMM have adapted his theme makes me wonder if Anthony would even want a credit, but some money I guess would be nice.

http://tinyurl.com/6ya6m9

By: webdesignuk326

webdesignuk326 — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 05:33:02 +0000

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By: Anthony

Anthony — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:10:43 +0000

Chris,
Had you waited about having your verbal diarrhea, you would have seen that I did, in fact, get over myself with a follow up moronic post.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:38:42 +0000

Seriously. Get over yourself.

You’re quite obviously acting the worse here, as the other party hasn’t done a single thing wrong, while you have attempted to skew their reputable business in a negative light.

And now you retract your earlier moronic posts, saying it’s a silly issue, yet you still refuse to post an apology for the harm you’ve done them?

By: R3ap3R

R3ap3R — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:27:30 +0000

Welcome to the front page of Digg via http://torrentfreak.com/british-government-gets-caught-pirating-website-080820/