There's a nice tutorial on Gimp Talk that I would like to copy and post in Gimp Chat. The author of the tutorial is poet666d and he/she is not a member of Gimp Chat.

I sent a message to poet666d two days ago asking permission but have not heard back yet.

How ethical is it to copy the tutorial into Gimp Chat, being sure that I give credit to poet666d and to Gimp Talk?

My personal opinion is that any step by step set of instructions that's posted to the internet is public domain, unless some form of licensing or copyright notice is posted along with it. See this thread in regards to the legal issues.

I think in all cases, it's appropriate to attempt to contact the author for permission but depending on licensing, that may not even be required. Common courtesy dictates that credit should be given, along with a link to the original work (if it still exists).

if it's online it's there for the world.

I am with Tux, and GMS on this one.If you put it out there for the world to see you gave it away unless there is an official do not use this without permission i see no problem with legal issues.
I think that as long as credit is given to the person/persons you grab the tutorial from it seems pretty ethical.

In my honest opinion.

Thanks for your feedback everyone. The tutorial is posted.
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2293

Echoing GnuTux's statement, you can't copyright a recipe. You can copyright the images used to illustrate it, though. But the idea itself isn't protected. Still, I agree credit should be given. It was somebody else's idea, after all.

I don't think I'm registered at GT, but I stumble across old tutorials there. While stumbling, I saw a thread started by someone complaining about all the people complaining that the site's always down. Got me thinking that if people are complaining, then they're still interested. It's when they stop complaining that we should worry...

And that led me to think that people should start looting the site before it goes down for good, if that ever happens. Or at least make some of the tutorials available elsewhere.

You made an effort to reach the author, you linked to the original post, I doubt you'd put up a fight if poet666d appeared and said "hey, take that down" -- I think you're fine to post it.

I'm registered but never go there. If we're looting, keep an eye open for a laptop or microwave.

@O
I think you did the right thing:
Tutorial may be copyrighted but the C apply to the word and the images not to the process explained

Once you follow the Tut and you understand to the point that you may apply to different images, then it become "yours" , and credits with link to the original version are all that may be expected

I have already basically looted all the official tutorials (7gigs).I should start getting them together for disbursement.

Great....