[conspire] A different sort of open source

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Dire Red (deirdre at deirdre.net):

> Toronto chef Nick Chen-Yin compiled a free open-source cookbook with
> recipes from his colleagues across the city.
> https://opensourcecookbook.cargo.site

I should have added, earlier:  Works like Nick Chen-Yin's, even if they
are mostly assemblages of non-copyright-eligible parts (such as food
recipes), can be nonetheless recognised as having a 'compilation
copyright'.  The Wikipedians' attempt to explain the concept:

  Copyright in compilation is a facet of copyright law that may provide
  copyright protection to a compilation (or collection) of material,
  irrespective of copyright in the underlying material.

  In the copyright law in the United States, such copyright may exist
  when the materials in the compilation (or "collective work") are
  selected, coordinated, or arranged creatively such that a new work is
  produced. Copyright does not exist when content is compiled without
  creativity, such as in the production of a telephone directory. In the
  case of compilation copyright, the compiler does not receive copyright
  in the underlying material, but only in the selection, coordination, or
  arrangement of that material.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_in_compilation

When I ran my The Skeptic's Board BBS (1987-1993), I asserted in one of
the bulletins compilation copyright over the organisation of the board
as a whole.  I shut that BBS down mostly because of dissatisfaction over 
feet-of-clay limitations of the medium, and not very coincidentally
opened my Web site the same year -- which is why my front page's legal
notices start with:

  Contents of this Web site as a whole (as a collection, i.e.,
  compilation copyright), without prejudice to the ownership of
  individual components, are copyright (C) Rick Moen, 1993-2020.a


Anyway, back to the cookbook by Nick Chen-Yin and many individual
contributors.  In one respect, and not in a good way, I'm reminded of
publicly redistributable software in the 1980s.  Chen-Yin says in the
foreward:

   This cookbook is meant to be an open source toolkit that everyone
   and anyone can access during a time of heightened need. 
   [...] It is meant to be shared so that we can learn from each other [...]

   Just like Linux (for all you computer nerds out there) this is a 
   cookbook that encourages the open source sharing of food knowledge.  [...]

   In the spirit of the cookbook, I'm asking you all to share this
   with whomever.  It's really not off-limits to anyone. [...]


So, where's the goshdarned licence and the copyright statement(s), Mr. 
Chen-Yin?   Is the vague permission grant on page two (partially 
quoted above) that of Nick Chen-Yin only, or of the contributors?
Or is it that of all but one of the contributors, who some day may 
sue people distributing the cookbook and hope estoppel doctrine won't
protect them?  Are the contributors permitting creation and distribution
of derivative works -- say, because someone wants to expurgate the word
'fucking' from the foreward?  To the extent the entries have
copyrightable elements (such as the pictures), what is the year of that
copyright (so we know when/if the copyright expires)?

I can predict what I'll hear back if I suggest adding appropriate
copyright notices and pick/use one of Creative Commons's excellent
standard licences from https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ :  I'll 
hear 'We don't want that complexity.'

It's always that song, and nobody's paying me to educate them that the
complexity is already all around us, and you cannot magick it away
by ignoring it.

Many software authors up through the early 1990s had the same attitude;
it was the era of half-assed 'freeware' concepts, etc.  Coders mostly 
learned better.  But sometimes, you find newcomers who never got the
memo, and think the law cannot hurt you if you don't believe in it.

-- 
Cheers,         "I suppose the process of acceptance will pass through the usual
Rick Moen       four stages: (i) This is worthless nonsense; (ii) This is an 
rick at linux      interesting, but perverse, point of view; (iii) This is true, 
mafia.com       but quite unimportant; (iv) I always said so." -- JBS Haldane