I have had a person here on the FML, despite replies, writing me in
multiple places (including to the the FHL despite Smartgroups being
largely crashed for over a week, creating more direct work) saying that
a recent statement of mine did not make sense, so here is why people can
NOT carry other people's messages to other lists without first having
the permission of those people. The info is from the experts so, please,
don't bother me further just obey copyright law and don't carry people's
posts to other locations without having the author's permission first
(sometimes it is also necessary to have the permission of the location
where the thing appears as with a publisher):
http://www.fplc.edu/tfield/copynet.htm
>Although email messages and web pages may enjoy copyright protection,
>rights are subject to several fundamental limits. For example, only
>expression is protected, not facts or ideas.
and
>Although web pages and email messages are protected as soon as created,
>copyright registration is needed before U.S. owners can bring suit.
so it is legal to paraphrase, but NOT to carry an actual post to a
website or another list without having author's permission beforehand.
It is also legal to carry short quotes.
If that is not clear enough:
http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/05-01/field.html
includes
>Copyright law gives people the right to exclude others from copying
>what they have written. Copyright arises automatically as soon as
>a protectable work has been fixed in a tangible medium such as a
>floppy disk or hard drive. Thus, a poem or letter, once saved to
>disk, is as much protected as if it were put on paper.
and it also points out that registration is not needed unless suit is
being brought, and can be done when the choice is made to bring suit.
BTW, if a work is carried you had better also hope that the source where
the post appeared/authorship (both if knowing one does not lead to
knowing the other) is credited because that are also part of the "fair
use" definition.
If you do not understand after using these resources, then, you should
read them over multiple times until you do, please, instead of continuing
to write me multiple times when I have explained that I am short on time.
Thanks.
You can, of course, cross post YOUR OWN messages as long as no one else
owns them by your agreement (for example, a magazine article becomes the
property of the publisher who paid for it, so later uses -- even by the
author -- must be with that magazine publisher's permission). Also,
there is usually an agreement in place on joining or through use at
places like lists that the list providers have certain rights over the
posts, so things like archives are legit, for example.
What much of this boils down to is this:
1. If you see a post and want another list to read it you HAVE to
have the author's permission BEFOREHAND unless that author has
already given you a blanket permission.
2. You must properly credit the origin/originator.
3. You must not alter it and then try to pass off the altered document
as being by that author. Alterations for clarity's sake are set
off by being in brackets [ ] so that they are not confused with
the words of the original author.
4. If the author refuses you permission or you do not have time to got
it, then if you properly give credit you can paraphrase or you can
use short quotes, properly attributed.
5. It is expected that readers are not idiots so they will always know
that paraphrases can be wrong, and that they will check sources
of partial quotes, especially when in doubt instead of automatically
believing things.
-- Sukie (not a vet)
Ferret Health List co-moderator
http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth
FHL Archives fan
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
replacing
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org
International Ferret Congress advisor
http://www.ferretcongress.org
[Posted in FML issue 5129]
|
