Can 'published' files be copied, and thence modified and distributed by others?

Hi Dave - The purpose of published files is to easily and quickly distribute a file (like a pdf, photo, or document) to anyone without requiring the recipient to setup an Ubuntu One account. There is nothing that Ubuntu One does for files that are published to prevent the file from being downloaded and altered by whomever you give the URL to.

So, for example, if you publish an open office document and give the URL to someone, they can download the file and alter the contents if they wish. If someone did alter and re-publish a copyrighted document, they would be in violation of our terms of service (https://one.ubuntu.com/terms/). If such a violation is found, we provide a process for the copyright holder to report a violation in the "Third-party content" section of our terms.

Thanks!

Thanks for that. I note the piece 'You may access third-party content in your use of the services. You will not remove any third party's copyright notices or other identifier, except as allowed by the third-party's licence of that content.'
  I appreciate that there is not much more you can actually do. I did wonder whether you could give an option to lock the files against copying, but that is obviously tricky in many ways.
  I could add that notice to the document I suppose, but that may be pushing it a bit too far! Are quotes from the regulations legal?!

Dave - Of course :)