History of the Code of Ethics (COE)

 

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Credit: Mr. Denny Lancaster - Lancasters Laughing Place.

Original article link:  http://www.faeriekeeper.net/ethics2.htm Although minor adaptations are included below this article is reprinted with permission from Mr. Denny Lancaster and is Copyright © Mr. Denny Lancaster. For more articles and information, please visit  Lancaster's Laughing Place.

In as much as the reader may consider that I am taking a stand in reference to the Code of Ethics (COE) which in fact, I am, what happened from the conception of the Code of Ethics (COE) this being finally resolved on August 15, 2008 was and is of a greater concern, that concern being ethical behavior.

The high handled tactics and usurpation of the Code of Ethics (COE) was nothing more than power mongering running amok and those precious few who voiced disdain were sent to their fate that being exile and isolation.

Many award program owners and thus their award programs professed to and remain professing they embrace the COE in their award programs but not abiding by it is an ethical lapse of monumental proportions and many award program owners stated copyright to the Code of Ethics (COE) without proper attribution and remain stating likewise today.

I (Rhonda Serong - hereinafter known as the author) concluded the correct legal status for such a document should be within the Public Domain and personally chose CEM/CEMA (now closed) as the guardian of the Code of Ethics (COE) on the one hand due to the faith personally held that CEM/CEMA would uphold the Spirit of the document and on the other hand because a few of the CEM/CEMA members edited, at the authors request, the final draft copy.

In trusting CEM/CEMA re the Code of Ethics (COE) the author made a grievous error in judgment as an un-named person literally stole the Code of Ethics (COE) claiming near ownership and certainly massive control over the Code of Ethics (COE) document for/by and/or on behalf of CEM/CEMA.

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Because some award program owners did recognize and ultimately acknowledge publicly within their award programs that the author had written the Code of Ethics (COE) document ( if you know the authors writing form it is easy to ascertain authorship ) the author was taken to task by a certain CEM/CEMA person with a flurry of private and public statements which were known by Mr. D. Lancaster, who was an active member of CEM/CEMA at that time, to be false and groundless. (Please refer to the Code of Ethics (COE) Disclaimer link.)

The original declaration made by the author to CEM/CEMA was signed as Co-author of the Declaration of Ethics and was signed as such because -

. . . As a few CEM/CEMA members assisted in editing the final draft of the Code of Ethics (COE) the author believed they should be recognized.

. . . The author needed all who read and/or used the Code of Ethics (COE) to gain an understanding of the reasoning behind the Code of Ethics (COE.)

You will notice that nowhere within the original Code of Ethics (COE) declaration made by the author to CEM/CEMA does it state in part or in full that CEM/CEMA owned or owns the Code of Ethics (COE) document but it does state that the Code of Ethics (COE) was gifted to the Awards Community.

But the Spirit of the Code of Ethics (COE) document that stands alongside the main Code of Ethics (COE) lays out quite clearly the legal situation of the Code of Ethics (COE) at the time of handing the Code of Ethics (COE) over to CEM/CEMA which was in part -

. . . The Code of Ethics (COE) although displayed within the environs of web sites protected by Copyright, cannot be covered by any Copyright. The Code of Ethics (COE) belongs to all individuals, groups and/or organizations who desire to abide by the spirit and content of the Code of Ethics (COE) for the betterment of the International Awards Community. (Please refer to The Spirit of the Code of Ethics (COE.))

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CEM/CEMA never placed the Code of Ethics (COE) in the Public Domain as was agreed and the author has been trying to enforce a no copyright policy on same ever since. ¹ ( See Footnotes. )

Finally on August 15, 2008 a great wrong was made right and the author obtained a Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike United States License for the Code of Ethics (COE) and placed the original Code of Ethics (COE) document in the care of the  Award Community News

The authors statement issued on August 15, 2008 follows -

Quote “ Although CEM/CEMA has been closed for some considerable time I have only yesterday ( August 15th, 2008 ) ascertained that the Code of Ethics (COE) document was never licensed within the Public Domain by CEM / CEMA as was requested by myself and agreed to many years past and as CEM/CEMA is no longer able to provide safe haven for the Code of Ethics (COE) document I have today, as the prime author of the Code of Ethics (COE) placed the document under a Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike United States License and have also placed the original Code of Ethics (COE) document in the care of the the Award Community News for the benefit of the overall Awards Community reserving the right for the owner of Award Community News and myself to jointly decide the future of the Code of Ethics (COE) should the Award Community News prematurely close.

Under the terms of the License we all remain free to remix, tweak, translate, redistribute and build upon our individual Code of Ethics (COE) documents non-commercially on condition we credit the  Award Community News and license our Code of Ethics (COE) creations under identical terms as may be seen by accessing the image link we provide.

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New users of the Code of Ethics (COE) can also download, remix, tweak, translate, redistribute and build upon the document producing new Code of Ethics (COE) documents based on the Code of Ethics (COE) but all new works based on the original Code of Ethics (COE)  must carry the same license so any derivatives will also be non-commercial in nature with credit given to the  Award Community News.

The License means that pages that display the Code of Ethics (COE) must now ( at a minimum ) have displayed at the bottom of all relevant Code of Ethics (COE) page/s the following -

1. The correct Creative Commons License PNG Image or JPG Image. Note: If you need a copy of the correct Creative Commons image you may obtain one from either of the fore mentioned links. ² ( See Footnotes. )

The Creative Commons images are to be linked to  Creative Commons with image alt and / or title tags as follows: The Code of Ethics (COE) is licensed under a Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike United States License.

Also displayed aligned with the image must be the following text content -

2. The Code of Ethics (COE) is licensed under a Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike United States License with credit being given to  Award Community News and being linked to ACN in accordance with the terms of the License.

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The credit being given to the Award Community News is considered correct in that although I was and remain the prime author of the original Code of Ethics (COE) I have never sought recognition for its composition and I consider that the Award Community News is an excellent medium within which the Code of Ethics (COE) may continue to progress.

I am aware that some may consider this to be a huge inconvenience however I consider the small amount of work involved to be minor when compared to the benefits many of us have had by displaying and using the Code of Ethics (COE) over the past years.

No one is going to 'police' web sites to see if we have our Code of Ethics (COE) Licenses displayed unless the Code of Ethics (COE) License becomes part of their requirements. That is not the purpose of the exercise. If we don't license our Code of Ethics (COE) pages then, in time, we will begin to lose credibility to those among us who have the License displayed so will have no one to blame but ourselves.

The exercise re the Code of Ethics (COE) has been to provide it with some protection of display and use and I look forward to those among us who currently use the Code of Ethics (COE) accepting this new arrangement.

I sincerely thank you for your patience in reading the above.

Rhonda. ” End Quote

(To access the original declaration made by myself to CEM/CEMA please refer to The Spirit of the Code of Ethics (COE.))

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Footnotes

¹ Nothing modern and creative is in the public domain anymore unless the owner explicitly puts it in the public domain. Explicitly, as in you have a note from the author/owner saying, “I grant this to the public domain.” Those exact words or words very much like them.

² Public domain case law legal proceedings reads in part “ granting something to the public domain is a complete abandonment of all rights. ”

However the factual documentation of the Code of Ethics (COE) supports that the document was not placed in the public domain by the author until August 15, 2008.

Therefore the Creative Commons License applies as follows:

Creative Commons licenses are non-revocable. This means that you cannot stop someone who has obtained your work under a Creative Commons license from using the work according to that license. You can stop distributing your work under a Creative Commons license at any time you wish but this will not withdraw any copies of your work that already exist under a Creative Commons license from circulation be they verbatim copies, copies included in collective works and / or adaptations of your work.

The Code of Ethics (COE) is licensed under a Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike United States License with credit being given to  Award Community News in accordance with the terms of the License.