copyright on gunlaug.com

copyright reminder

Normal decent people don't need copyright reminders. You already know what the term “copy­right” means, and respect other people's work and property.

Those who don't fit the “normal decent people” descrip­tion are unlikely to read copyright notes, as they probably don't care about such matters as long as they don't get caught.

I am writing this copyright text because I want to make my position on the issue known in one spot on site. Besides, I have all this space available…

formally, and practically

In most countries original writing and work of art is regarded as personal property protected from being exploited by others without consent for quite a number of years after the creator/owner has – formally – left this world. For details: read up on interna­tional copyright agree­ments.

The basics are pretty clear: original stuff ain't free to use/exploit until long after the creator died. I am still around – in case anyone wondered.

I do of course have better things to do than to seek up and run after people who like my stuff so much that they can't leave it alone. Always nice if they ask first and borrow later though, as that is how normal, decent, people go about it.

my official variant

the content: All information, illustrations, ideas and views presented in this document, are the author's own unless clearly stated otherwise. In common everyday language that means you should ask the author for permission before ripping off or copying any of the content for any purpose. As a bare minimum you should behave like a decent member of the world wide web community and always state where the stuff comes from and refer (link) back to the original article.
My thanks go to all those who have contacted me about such matters over the years. I really appreciate it!

the code: Markup, CSS, scripts etc. behind this web document, are all created by the author, unless clearly stated otherwise in individual files. Same is true for the design itself, and all images and other elements that make up or complement the design. In short: it is my property and copyright protected as such.
Borrow ideas as much as you like if you manage to find anything useful around here, but I strongly object to anyone copying my code, designs and/or files without having asked for and received my written permis­sion.
Again, my thanks go to all those who have contacted me about such matters over the years.

I haven't turned any serious requests down yet, although I have advised a few amateurs to look for layouts elsewhere since I don't have time to help anyone make my site­wide ones work for them.

about gunlaug.com

The site name “gunlaug.com” reflects the author's wife's name: Gunlaug Solås. At the moment there are five sites fully up or in a state of prepa­ra­tion, under our control and reflecting the same name.

There are a couple of private businesses behind “gunlaug.com” and our other sites, but these sites are not launched primarily to promote these or any other businesses.
Instead these sites are our private play­ground and informa­tion channels, that along with our facebook pages make up our private presence on the web.

This information is included here as a general response to infrequent requests regarding our sites name, and our relations to various businesses worldwide.
In case you, or someone you represent, should show interest in buying any of my domain names, I will also mention that neither “gunlaug.com”, nor any of our other domains under the “gunlaug” name, are for sale.

contact me

I am not seeking contact with anyone, and am too busy for “smalltalk”. Serious requests and comments related to my web work, content and site(s) are always welcome though, and I will respond as quickly as possible.

It is easy to get in touch with me – just write an email. If you write in clear English and make sure not to write or include anything stupid, a serious mail is likely to pass my “mailbird filters” unharmed.

sincerely  georg; sign
author@gunlaug.com

Weeki Wachee 06.feb.2011
08.feb.2011 - finishing side-notes.
07.may.2012 - rewrote some.
14.may.2012 - rewrote some and added more in addendum.
01.oct.2013 - changed "mailto" address.
15.mar.2014 - minor revision.
01.jul.2014 - wrote the "about gunlaug.com" block + minor addition/revision in side notes + added "mailto" link to signature.
07.sep.2016 - replaced image in main headline.
11.sep.2020 - light editing and local (page) restyling.
last rev: 11.sep.2020


side notes.

copyright?
COPYRIGHT

Copyright laws and regula­tions found around the world, recognize and protect original work, regard­less of whether the © sign is attached to it or not. In practice the pro­tec­tion relies on people's respect for original creators' or owners' right to control and limit reuse and spread of their own work and property.

kind of flattering

Plagiarism and theft is growing with the expansion of the web and similar channels. More and more people show less and less respect for other people's work and property. A sad fact, but also kind of flattering for those who get their work copied or imitated. Someone must really like it a lot in order to take the chance of being caught and shamed.

No hard laws against plagiarism, but if the person/group behind the original work have a case and really want to do something about it, they won't have to look far for moral support.

a few copies around

For obvious reasons I won't point/link to the few copies of my earlier site-layouts I have found while surfing. It doesn't bother me the slightest that they are up, I was just a bit surprised to find that someone really thought they were worth copying.

In my case I have a suspicion that someone copied those layouts to study how they worked. If that's the case it's kind of OK with me, as learning by dissecting other people's web-work may speed up the learning-process.

Not a good idea to place complete copies of other people's layouts/​designs in the open on the web for any reason though, as not everyone like to find non-approved copies of their own work while surfing/​searching.

Better keep such stuff out of view on a local hard-disk or in a pass­word-protected folder on line, and study how they work there.

study web-work

The W3C actually promotes learning web design by down­loading and studying other people's work, and I do of course have no problem with such a policy. For the average wannabe web designer / coder there aren't all that many good alter­na­tives to learn in depth how it is done.

Although the number of sites that offer web-templates, complete solu­tions, and all kinds of related stuff for free, is quite high, much of what is being offered isn't exactly ground-breaking stuff. Most of that stuff is plenty good enough for those who only want to copy and paste for a private site, but not if one wants to build and present a site as ones own creation.

There are great exceptions if one knows what to look for and where to look, but for the average wannabe web designer / coder, finding and sorting out the really good stuff in a sea of “just web-stuff” can't be all that easy. Once upon a time I was in that very same position myself, which is why I started to “roll my own” designs and solutions.

As with all else in life: once you know how it all works, building up web sites from scratch with all wanted design details and func­tion­ality in place, is fairly easy. All one need is plenty of time and patience, to code and test.

I recommend sifting through the markup and CSS docu­men­tation on the W3C site first, where the web stan­dards are explained in (quite) some details. Looking around for well-working design-examples should rather be put off until you have acquired some basic know­ledge, so you can at least sort the fairly good examples from the really bad ones.

also in print…
The basic 'Content and Code' notes, 
as found in Addendum on most pages on site

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