Copyright infringement

Matthew Seaman matthew at FreeBSD.org
Sat Sep 2 11:48:27 UTC 2017


On 02/09/2017 02:29, Rob Belics wrote:
> I don't know if this is worth pursuing but this guy is copy/pasting from
> the Handbook and declaring it, sometimes, as his own article. I read that
> parts of it are flat out wrong but they may be corrected by now. Worse, the
> site name is "Linux Secrets".
> 
> https://www.linuxsecrets.com/en/entry/51-freebsd/2017/08/30/2926-upgrading-freebsd-11-0-to-11-1
> 
> In case this is worth a letter or email

The FreeBSD Foundation is the body responsible for handling matters
around code licensing and copyrights for the project.  I've CC'd them in
this response as it's their call as to whether any action is needed, but
my initial reaction is that this is not such a case.

Having taken a cursory look at some of the pages on the blog, I can't
see any obvious claim that the blog owner is plagiarising the Handbook
or similar.  While the blog page you cite is broadly similar to sections
of the handbook -- eg.
https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/updating-upgrading-freebsdupdate.html
I feel that this is simply the result of two different authors
independently talking about the same process.

Even if the blog content was derived from the Handbook, there's nothing
against the terms of the FreeBSD license in /reproducing/ sections of
the documentation.  Claiming that work as your own is definitely not
allowed.  Neither is removing the copyright statement.

On the whole, I'd say having bloggers talking about their (good)
experiences with FreeBSD is something the project would like to
encourage and despite the domain name, this is someone we should be
encouraging.

	Cheers,

	Matthew






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