Topic: Enhancement: allow copyright to be assigned to a non-user
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Right now the copyright notice for new items is assigned to the user that created the item. For site that host historical or other material that was originally created outside the site, this doesn't always suit.
Create a mechanism so that the user that creates an item in Kete that will have a copyright and license notice may specify a legal entity other than herself or himself that is either another site user or doesn't exist in the system at all.
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It would be very helpful to assign a non-user as a copyright holder but I am surprised that it will take 2-3 days of programming. Can you give me a rough idea of why something seemingly trivial to me as a non-programmer, is obviously not!
The main answer is because the work necessary is more than programming.
It also includes deciding on how the feature should work both from the perspective of the user and the technical details, adding programmatic tests that describe the feature, first implementation programming, gathering feedback from the community, programming that revises the feature based on the feedback, code review and testing to make sure it plays nicely with existing functionality in Kete, release management (filling out Kete ticket, tracking its progress, closing the ticket at http://kete.lighthouseapp.com/projects/14288-kete/tickets?q=all), and documenting the feature with a Howto topic on old.kete.net.nz.
The pure coding side of "programming" things is probably the minority of work in this particular case! However, the other work is very important from an overall Kete project point of view and an end user point of view.
It's also work that developers, i.e. Katipo, need to take into account in order to have sustainable service based business models. It is work that is often taken for granted.
Tags: enhancements, contributions, release management, vendors
WendyB
said Thanks, Walter
Thanks for your detailed explanation; it makes the proposed time more understandable. As a site administrator I can get around this copyright issue by adding new members; however a standard user wanting to add say a Taranaki Herald newspaper clipping from 50 years ago won't be able to acknowledge the paper for copyright unless we carry out your proposed modifications - is this right?
If that's the case then all Kete users will need to support this enhancement so that appropriate copyright acknowledgment is achieved.
There are, of course, ways around this issue that exist. They take some doing though by either a site administrator, such as creating a new license in the administrator interface that says "copyright held by original holder" and then noting the copyright holder in the description, or by normal users that register as the copyright holder to add particular items. Both are kind of a hassle.
On a site note about your example, I may be completely wrong (fair use?), but if a user wants to upload a scan of a newspaper clipping that is still under copyright they need to obtain permission from the copyright holder.
If they have to do that, they might as well register for them and upload it under their name or have the holder upload it themselves.
Tags: enhancements, copyright, licenses, uploading
Walter McGinnis
said Funding and scope of work
There is currently no funding to support this work, but I'm sure a number of projects would like it. I wouldn't expect it to be more than a three day job. Probably closer to two.
Please comment here if you are interested and/or if you would be willing to contribute programming time or funds to help make it happen.
Tags: enhancements, funding, contributions