Copyright issues: split from P&WA discussion

WarrenPlatts

Copyrighted material??? I don't think they want to make money anymore. Last I heard, the Danish cartoonists were in hiding and wishing they never drew them.

Moonbear

It doesn't matter. If we reproduce something with a copyright without getting permission to do so, they could shut down PF. The link provided earlier will suffice for those who want to see for themselves what the fuss is all about.

WarrenPlatts

Copyrighted material is cut and pasted to this forum every day with impunity. You're afraid all right. But I don't think that you think that you're afraid that some Danish newspaper will cross the pond and shut down PF.

BTW, I can still link on the cartoon from my screen.

chroot

Listen, Warren, we're not perfect. We're volunteers. While we certainly haven't prevented every act of plagiarism ever attempted on this site, we stop every single one we see (like this one).

There's no need for you to second-guess our motives or our decisions. If you cannot cooperate with the moderation staff here, we welcome you to find another venue.

- Warren

WarrenPlatts

THIS IS WHAT THIS THREAD IS ALL ABOUT!

FREEDOM OF THE PRESS!

I myself have copied passages from numerous sources onto PF for all sorts of reasons. Most recently from that respected Indian journal, Current Science. This is not plagiarism--as you accuse me of--the worst academic crime on the books. Thanks guys. It is fair use. Everyone I have cited on these forums was properly documented.

Merely reproducing a political cartoon that has become a news item in itself is not a violation of any copyright.

I realize that the PF staff are all volunteers, and though they are not perfect, they do an excellent job, for the most part.

Deciding to shy away or not to shy away from this issue is, however, a defining moment.

Show the courage of your convictions.

- Warren

Moonbear

Note, I've split this off from the original thread to continue this discussion without again derailing the original thread.

Warren, freedom of the press does not give us permission to reproduce other people's work. Reproducing a political cartoon owned by either the artist, or more likely the newspaper, is indeed a violation of copyright. I cannot even use a cartoon, legally, in a lecture I give for a class without permission from the author. It does not qualify as fair use. If you have been quoting large passages of text from other sources without acknowledging the source, including proper quotes, or if the source does not expressly have a fair-use statement, then no, you should not be doing that either.

Note further that even though we do not make any profit from this site, because we do have contributors and advertising sponsors, legally, one could argue we earn revenue from what is on this site, which means anyone holding a copyright to material we post here could sue us for any profit we've made off of them. You can say what you want, but you can't reproduce someone else's words or works.

CosminaPrisma

For that some of the brain articles that I've posted in Mind & Brain Forum, I might be infringing upon copyright even though I provide a link to the site I got it from or do a text-wrap around the article, tried to edit those posts, it didnt work can't seem to edit the thread I start OR the posts I make....no one has said anything if I am infringing on copyright but I'm trying to get things cleared up because I definately DON'T want to be infringing on copyright.

CosminaPrisma

Whats the best way to avoid infringing on copyright in the future when you post and article and a link, just post your own summary of the article and then the link?
***I don't think most people are going to get upset if you post an article about their work as long as you don't claim that you wrote the article or give yourself credit for their ideas because in a way, you're publicizing their work to the general public & creating interest for them, but laws are laws, I don't want to see this place shut down or some lawsuit or crimminal proceeding happen because I didn't cut an paste an article the correct way or cite something properly.

BobG

I think the same guidelines apply that would if you were writing a paper that referenced the article. You can use a quote from the article as long as you reference the source (a link to the source page works well). You can't include someone's work in its entirety.

Common sense is the key. A small quote advertises a work and increases the number of people that will buy the reference's book or go to the web page of the source, increasing their advertising revenue. Providing so much of the work that no one has any reason to reference the original is stealing from the person who created the work.

This is why there is a controversy about frames in web pages. Even though you're technically referencing the original, it's appearing in its entirety in your own web page enhancing the value of your web page instead of the source's.

TheStatutoryApe

Warren there is another site I frequent where the owner was threatened with considerable fines for members' use of copyrighted material. It's something best to avoid really.

For text I think that the going standard has been that you only quote a small portion (maybe a paragraph) of said article or document and then provide a link to the rest of it. Maybe Greg could let us know if we should take further steps.

WarrenPlatts

This is a smokescreen. Nobody here is worried about copyright infringement with regard to the Danish cartoon. It's a legitimate news item in itself and is in the public domain now. To say otherwise is disingenuous to put it politely. People asked to see it, so I uploaded it from my own harddrive. Big deal.

I, however, know why you feel compelled to delete it and not the other antiWesternCivilization, antiUnitedStates, antiSemitic, antiScientific tripe that's routinely allowed to exist here--and that's too bad. Someday you will wake up--but apparently only a nuclear bomb in your backyard is loud enough.

Cheers,
Warren

Greg Bernhardt

We appreciate your feedback Warren.