UK government stole website theme
No respect for Creative Commons
NUMBER 10, the UK Prime Minister's website, is apparently built using a design it nicked.
A little sleuthing in the Number 10 website's source code by The Open Sourcerer has turned up convincing evidence that it uses a Wordpress theme called Networker.
The Networker theme, which is available at antbag.com, was created by Anthony Baggett and is licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License, which as the name implies requires users to retain intact the licence notice and author's attribution.
But the government apparently removed all traces of the theme's source, author attribution and licencing from its website source code. The author has confirmed that the government never contacted him for permission to relicence his theme or remove his licence notice and attribution.
So much for the present UK government actually respecting copyrights and the niceties of intellectual property licencing, then, despite all its blathering that it does and people must. µ
L'Inq
The
Open Sourcerer
Comments
As we say...
The rule of government: do as we say, not as we do.Maybe...
they got the theme from a Nigerian yellowcake dealer!The Data Protection of Plagiarism
Oppressive, arbitrary or unconstitutional actions by the servants of government, may entitle the plaintiff to exemplary damages; however, it would be difficult to prove conduct was egregiously invidious, despite the address as given: No. 10 Downing St. Had the material been employed for profit, by say, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) without proper compulsory purchase, perhaps, Baggett would bag the benefit of the bargain, or at least a lottery ticket. Open Sauce deserves a statue where punitive recourse expressly authorises the same, or in the least, a fair likeness.Quck! Start a petition!
OMG! Someone should start a petition against this... Not that the PM's office would take any notice.
lol :O)
oh the irony, dont ya just lurrrrrrrrrrrrrrv it !!!! O_o
Do as I say
and not as I do.Isn't it nice to see a government abide by this age-old principle ? I wonder if the sheeple will one day understand that not being reelected is simply not a sufficient deterrent to keep politicians in line.
I also wonder if one day we'll have flying cars.
I think that is more probable.