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O'Reilly Policy on Re-Use
of Code Examples from Books
Bruce Epstein, author of Director in a Nutshell
(out of print) and Lingo
in a Nutshell, who is now working as a part-time
editor for O'Reilly (he is editor of Colin Moock's
recently published ActionScript:
The Definitive Guide) sent in the following
question:
"What is our policy with regard to programmers
incorporating code examples from books into
their work? I get asked this all the time."
The short answer is this:
You can use and redistribute example code from
our books for any non-commercial purpose (and
most commercial purposes) as long as you acknowledge
their source and authorship. The source of the
code should be noted in any documentation as
well as in the program code itself (as a comment).
The attribution should include author, title,
publisher, and ISBN.
As is often the case, there's a longer answer
as well. Bruce made it really easy for me to
put this response together, since he forwarded
an unofficial reply on this subject that he'd
sent to the FlashCoders mailing list. What appears
below is based on his message. (Hey, anyone
else who wants to send the answer as well as
the question to Ask Tim can make my job a lot
easier :-) Thanks, Bruce.)
As per the copyright notice in our books, O'Reilly
reserves all rights to the material in the book,
including the code examples. This literally
means that you can use the example code all
you like, but you can't publish or redistribute
it without our permission. In reality, we are
comfortable with any reasonable "fair use" of
the code, and you can assume permission is granted
without contacting us. The threshold of what
is reasonable (fair use) depends on a number
of factors. First, if the book is published
under an open source or open publication license,
you can use the code examples without any obligation
to us. Otherwise, use the following sanity tests:
-
If the code is incorporated into a software
product, Web site, or Web service, is
the product, site, or service a commercial
venture? We don't object to commercial
ventures, but if someone is looking
to profit from our work (or that of
our authors'), and the use is substantial,
we may want to consider a license fee.
(Send licensing queries to permissions@oreilly.com.)
-
Is the O'Reilly material incidental to
the entire product? Are you using only
a small excerpt? For example, you can't
publish a CD-ROM of code examples from
O'Reilly books without our explicit
permission. But we aren't going to worry
if you use a routine taken from our
books as part of a huge software project,
in which the borrowed code is incidental.
-
Does the work compete with O'Reilly?
For example, if you are a book publisher,
you can't use anything from our books
without our permission.
-
Is proper credit given? Such credit would
include a statement specifying the source
of the material, such as "Derived from
Example 10-2, ActionScript: The Definitive
Guide by Colin Moock. Copyright
2001 O'Reilly & Associates." Note
that giving credit does not insulate
you from prosecution if you improperly
use copyrighted material!
-
Does your use fall within fair use provisions
of copyright law? (Academic research,
commentary, etc.) For example, you don't
need O'Reilly's explicit permission
to post a snippet of code on a mailing
list if you are pointing out a bug,
asking a question, or answering one.
We especially like it when people answer
questions by pointing to our books,
quoting from them, and citing their
examples, as long as they acknowledge
the source!
Acknowledging the source is particularly
important. Bruce didn't mention this
in his posting to FlashCoders, but I
know that he personally was bit by this
one. Someone was routinely answering
Lingo questions on a mailing list by
supplying examples from Bruce's book,
without acknowledging the source (and
leading people to believe that the poster
had written them).
We put the code from our books online because
we want it to be used. (Who wants to type it
in?) That's why we make it available in lots
of ways: for download from the Web (all examples
are linked from the book's catalog page on oreilly.com),
in our CD Bookshelf products, and in our new
Safari online service.
If you are interested in licensing O'Reilly
book content as a third party, send your request
to corporate@oreilly.com.
--Tim
Got
a question? Just ask!
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