My Content Is Your Content

Posted on March 24, 2008 by Matticus!
Filed Under Blog Business

I consider that the golden rule requires that if I like a program I must share it with other people who like it. - Richard Stallman

Matt’s note: This post has nothing to do with World of Warcraft in any way. You’re welcome to ‘mark as read’.

I sometimes receive requests either via email or in my comments for permission to copy some parts of my blog posts for use on Guild forums or other Webpages and I have never turned anyone down. Limited permission has been granted and attribution was always required.

But I am now giving permission for any of the content on World of Matticus to be used in any way shape or form.

I’m going to say this again.

I am releasing copyright on my content.

You will no longer need to e-mail me or post in my comments or IM me for permission. You are welcome to use it however you like. Feel free to share it with others and reprint it with or without credit. By all means, change it or re-write.

Credit
Hey, you don’t have to. But I’d like to get credit for anything that I’ve done and written about. A link back would be nice to have. But you are certainly under no obligation to do so.

Why I’m releasing copyright
I’m a huge fan and support of Larry Lessig. For those of you that aren’t aware, Larry is a Stanford law professor who has advocated "free culture". If you have time, check out his TED talk on the subject.

I am not the definitive authority on raiding, healing, or leading. In everything I do whether it’s as a student, as a gamer, or as a writer, a cardinal rule that I’ve learned to respect and embrace is there is always someone better.

If there is an individual out there who would like to take the posts that I’ve done and the work I’ve invested and improve upon it, then that would be absolutely fantastic! If they can turn it into something humorous, uplifting, reflective, then all the best to that.

Because do you know who benefits the most?

It’s certainly not me.

It’s you, the WoW community, that stands the most to gain.

The reason I’m writing and blogging is because I want to share my knowledge of the game so that you can improve yours.

Mozilla Firefox started out as open source, remember.

Counter arguments
I would imagine that there are a few arguments that might come up as a result of this change.

1. People are stealing from you! No, they’re not. You cannot steal what is being freely given. It’s like trying to steal free mints from a bar, I suspect.

3. What if they make you and your work look bad? Yeah, that’s certainly a possibility. Someone could take my work and turn it into garbage and attach my name to it. Just about anything can be done with it. On the other hand, someone can take my work and turn it into something a whole lot better. Maybe that might take the concepts and principles that I respect and make it more useful. I know human beings can be creative creatures and I’m curious to see what they can do.

6. What if someone writes a book with all your content and makes a million dollars off it? Making money off of WoW? I’d certainly like to see that. I hope I can at least get credit for it and that some of that money goes to charity.

Once again, I want to make clear that this post is an official notification that my writing here at World of Matticus and is now in the public domain. I hereby waive all claim of copyright in this work. It may be used or altered in any manner without attribution or notice to the me. Credit and attribution, of course, are appreciated.

Inspired by: Lawrence Lessig and Zen Habits: Open Source Blogging

Comments

8 Responses to “My Content Is Your Content”

Matford, Nagrand on March 24th, 2008 3:37 pm

Way to go. I really should stop being lazy and get WoW running on Linux
Softi on March 24th, 2008 4:28 pm

wow props to ya Matt, I don’t think I’d like knwing that others were using my writings and pretending it was their own… although why anyone would want MY writing would be beyond me! lol
Wynthea on March 25th, 2008 7:00 am

It seems small, but that takes a lot of courage.

Here’s to the great experiment!
Pike on March 25th, 2008 10:31 am

Matford - that’s what I do

Whoo /cheer Open Source
Gwaendar on March 25th, 2008 1:26 pm

Pardon me but I fail to see what more you’re offering this way than with a CC share-alike license, while you retain a lot less of your intellectual property.

Free sharing has never been about renouncing the rights to your own work, but in freely sharing it. For instance, all posts at Altitis are free to share and expand upon, for non-commercial use, provided that the used material is shared under the same conditions and that I’m credited for it. You could very well lift most of these restrictions without endangering the free and open spirit, while still retaining your rights.
Matticus! on March 25th, 2008 4:23 pm

Gwaendar: I’m offering people the right and ability to use my material without feeling like they have to ask me for permission or attribute anything to me in any way. They don’t have to say that this post of theirs was based off of a post from my blog. If they want to include my work for commercial projects, then they are certainly welcome to do so.
Gwaendar on March 25th, 2008 11:54 pm

Gotcha. You’re opening your work up to the public domain. Allow me however to point out that neither Linux nor the vast majority of free software is actually public domain. Stallman’s children, the GNU project and the Free Software Foundation define the boundaries of free software here, and Larry Lessing is the founder and head of Creative Commons.
Which is a tad different from public domain.
Aos on March 26th, 2008 8:19 pm

Congratulations Matticus on the big step into the public domain.