Digital Sextant

So I’m all about the free and open exchange of ideas.  My copyright statement for this website, for example, marks all my stuff as Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial.  Woot.  So you’d think I’d love it when people redistribute my stuff.  Not necessarily so.  I recently found, through a Google Alert, my zombie syllabus hosted online at “DocStoc.”  Alas, the person who posted it did three things that I found annoying:

1. They posted it on their page filled with Google Ads and stuff.  I’m not entirely sure how I feel about that being “noncommercial,” but I would have let it go if not for the other two elements.
2. They did not acknowledge anywhere that I wrote it.  Since my name was in the syllabus itself, I suppose you could figure that out, but sometimes syllabi are issued by instructors who don’t write them.  So there should have been some sort of note.
3. The document was marked “public domain” instead of “Attr-NonCom.”  That’s the part that really bugged me.  You can’t change the license.

So I sent the docstoc user who posted it this message on 9 Dec:

Hello,

You’ve posted my syllabus, ZOMBIES IN POPULAR MEDIA, on this page:

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/15709169/Welcome-to-Zombies-in-Popular-Media!-Introduction-Course

That document is copyright me, Brendan Riley, and is distributed under a creative commons attribution noncommercial license, as detailed here:

http://curragh-labs.org/copyright.shtml

In order to keep this document on your site, you must follow the conditions of the license:

1. Post a public note that the syllabus is created by me,

Brendan Riley, along with a link back to the original site: http://curragh-labs.org/zombies

2. You may not post this as a public domain document.  You can use the same license or a more restricted one, but you may not use a public domain one.

If this is not resolved within 48 hours, I will file a DMCA notice.

Best,
Brendan Riley

http://curragh-labs.org/

I got no reply, so on 13 Dec I filed a DMCA notice with the website.  They took the file down.  Makes me sad, because I would have happily let him/her have the document up if s/he actually followed my license rules.