Not paraphrasing or copying the code is actually a service to your fellow monks. IMHO, it has the following advantages:

  • To get at the answer, people have to buy the book, or get the examples code from some website (usually provided). This should save on future questions, because people can then reasonably be expected to read the book (and actually learn something vs. just copy-and-paste the code).
  • It gives credit to the authors the way books are intended to work - by paying them. This is good, for otherwise we won't have any good authors.
  • It gets people into the habit of looking things up for themselves. Copy-and-paste usually fails to do this.
  • The books usually will have much, much more context information on how to use a given snippet, and that will often be very important.
  • You don't have to retype the code.
  • You have no problems with copyrights.

    That said, it is of course nice to give short, crisp answers based on a book's solution to a problem. But in the long run, just citing the book title and a page number will do the better service for all of us.

    The book to read is not the one which thinks for you, but the one which makes you think. -- James McCosh

    (See also this collection of quotations about books and reading.)

    Christian Lemburg
    Brainbench MVP for Perl
    http://www.brainbench.com

    In reply to Re: Fair Use When Referring to Book Answers? by clemburg
    in thread Fair Use When Referring to Book Answers? by Guildenstern

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