>> and imply that a suitably large portion of the credit for the program belongs to
>> the original authors."
I would suggest that several responsible people do some powwow and
change this language. This is a problem waiting to happen again and
again. I would further suggest a Stata FAQ (not Statalist FAQ) be
established regarding copyrights and authorship and the proper way to
give credit and citation.
I would also suggest that people, including myself, start treating the
program and the help file more like an acadmic output if we are so
keen on presenting them as academic outputs. This means the help file
should be expanded to include a small reference section when
appropriate.
As I have mentioned before, giving citation is mandatory for anyone
who borrows substantially from another person's work. There is no if's
or but's about this. I don't make these rules. These are the academic
rules and traditions dating back to the end of middle age when people
involved in research realized the need for systematic citation in
order to make any academic collaboration possible.
In the past, people have proudly declared that their programs are
superior to the original without mentioning where they got it in the
first place. Giving citations will prevent this kind of nonsense.
Imagine yourself in a situtation where your own work has been
exploited in this manner. Only sure way to prevent that from happening
is to refuse to share work, which is not good for anybody, or have a
system in place that protects everyone's work and their reputation
against this type of nonsense.
Roy
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