Disclaimer: November 2005

Nope, I can't think of anything to write at the moment.

Funny, how a three-week hiatus can technically drain you of potential writing topics. And wipe out the batteries in the cell phone you left home. And make TV a heck of a lot more boring than it normally is.

Now where were we?

Oh, yeah. The monthly threats.

Let's see... normally, I start by saying that everything on this blog is the property of Sean except where noted. That means that everything here is a true-blue, original piece of writing as placed on virtual paper by my own two hands. I'll make the occasional reference to someone else's work, but in those cases I will place text and/or link to the correct author just so that credit goes where credit's due.

I have a Note of Ownership and a Creative Commons License over there on the right, so there's not much more to say at the moment. Basically, they're both there to state that I will not tolerate people who take stuff from this site and try to pass it off as their own work, no matter who they are, who they have backing them up and how many copies they sell.

It's right there: If you want to use anything from this site, then ask.

That's it, really: Ask.

As everyone probably knows, however, sometimes people can surprise us with their ability to totally ignore simple instructions.

I've observed that, in most cases where plagiarism reaches a legal resolution, the common measure involves having the offender pay restitution to the involved plaintiff. It's usually a fair trade for all parties involved: The original author gets the compensation he or she wants, and the plagiarist gets to use the work that he or she ripped off in the first place.

Yeah, I'll agree. That actually doesn't sound very fair, once you think about it. It's like saying that anyone can plagiarize anybody else's works as long as they have the money to pay for the legal issues.

Still, I suppose that that's okay with me. You can go ahead and steal my stuff without my express permission, just as long as you come back to me afterwards with a large sum of money and a huge grin on your face.

You're going to need that grin, after all, once you find out that I'm gonna shove that massive amount of cash up where the sun don't shine.

I love these monthly disclaimers. Don't you? :)