<P> Attribution is often considered as the most basic requirements in the usage of the works of others, with a long tradition in the scientific community and academia . </P> <P> If attribution is required by a license, it prevents others from claiming fraudulently to own the work and allows a copyright holder to accumulate a positive reputation that partially repays their losses . In cases when the copyright holder is the author himself, it is regarded as a sign of decency and respect to acknowledge the creator by giving him / her credit for the work . </P> <P> The most fundamental form of attribution is the statement of the copyright holder's identity, often in the form Copyright © (year) (copyright holder's name). The preservation of such a notice was an invariable requirement to prevent a work entering the public domain; this changed in the United States of March 1, 1989 when the requirement of copyright registration and copyright signment was ended . Copyright holder attribution is in most countries in the world not required, due to Berne convention . </P> <P> Author attribution is required by several licenses, such as the open content Creative Commons licenses and most open - source software licenses like the MIT permissive license . Open content licenses without the requirement for author attribution are Public domain equivalent licenses, like CC0 . </P>

When would the attribution of a work be required