G R 'Scott' Cundiff
11th April 2007, 06:39 PM (18:39)
NazNet attempts to maintain a high level of ethical behavior. Because of that we have created a FAQ about posting copyrighted material. You can read it here: http://www.naznet.com/community/faq.php?faq=rules#faq_7faq
This post is simply an attempt to explain that FAQ a bit better. I'll do that by working with a specific example.
A famous poet is Maya Angelou. If you do a search on the internet you will find thousands of pages containing her work. Seeing that, you would think, "Well, her work must be in public domain, right?"
Wrong.
Go to Random House: http://www.randomhouse.com and do a search for Maya Angelou and you will find several books of her work. All the poems of Mary Angelou from those books are copyrighted by Random House.
Now, say you want to legally put one of her poems on NazNet. Look at the bottom of most Random House pages and you will find a link to "permissions." It is a lot of reading and you will find a form there that you can use to request written permission to publish one of her poems on a webpage or in some other document.
Don't get upset with the NazNet moderators about this -- it is the copyright holder who says they own the work and you are not free to use it any way you want.
What about all those people who have Maya Angelou's work on their pages? Some actually do have permission from Random House, at least their webpage says, "Used by permission of Random House" right on the page. Others don't have permission, so I guess they are just taking something someone else owns and using it for their own purpose. I saw one case where a person actually posted one of Maya Angelou's poems without any evidence of having gotten permission to do so and then put a copyright notice of their own on the page! Wow, what nerve!
So what can be done?
Well, if you find one of her poems on a page that says they have permission, you can quote a few lines of the poem in a post, tell why you like the poem and then add a link to the page where interested people can read the whole poem. That is called "fair use."
If you can't find a page that says the poem is used with permission, you can guess that the owner of the poem doesn't really want it published on the internet. It is their poem after all! To post it anyway is, well, to say it nicely, it is taking something that doesn't belong to you. In the case of Maya Angelou I checked out her own website. Guess what? Not a single poem of hers is posted on her own website! There are links to places where you can buy books of her poetry and writing. Maybe that should be a message to us about how she wants people to access her work!
You can still post a small part of the poem and say what you like about it without posting a link to a place where it is illegally copied.
Now, I have been working with a specific person so people can get a handle on what this is all about -- but all the above is true of news sites, political sites, and all other kinds of sites. Remember: the page doesn't have to have a copyright notice on it for the material to be copyrighted. The only way you can know material is not copyrighted is if there is a notice by the actual owner of the material saying "permission is granted" for their material to be posted. Usually such permission also has the stipulation that you have to give credit. If you only use an insignificant part of it, you don't need permission, but it is still reasonable that you give credit.
Do that and it will make life much easier for the moderators. If you see a news article that you think others ought to read, but you fear they won't bother to follow the link you provide (which may be saying more to you than you realize), then (if it is true of course) copy and paste it and add the words "used with permission."
So, please follow the rules of NazNet.
This post is simply an attempt to explain that FAQ a bit better. I'll do that by working with a specific example.
A famous poet is Maya Angelou. If you do a search on the internet you will find thousands of pages containing her work. Seeing that, you would think, "Well, her work must be in public domain, right?"
Wrong.
Go to Random House: http://www.randomhouse.com and do a search for Maya Angelou and you will find several books of her work. All the poems of Mary Angelou from those books are copyrighted by Random House.
Now, say you want to legally put one of her poems on NazNet. Look at the bottom of most Random House pages and you will find a link to "permissions." It is a lot of reading and you will find a form there that you can use to request written permission to publish one of her poems on a webpage or in some other document.
Don't get upset with the NazNet moderators about this -- it is the copyright holder who says they own the work and you are not free to use it any way you want.
What about all those people who have Maya Angelou's work on their pages? Some actually do have permission from Random House, at least their webpage says, "Used by permission of Random House" right on the page. Others don't have permission, so I guess they are just taking something someone else owns and using it for their own purpose. I saw one case where a person actually posted one of Maya Angelou's poems without any evidence of having gotten permission to do so and then put a copyright notice of their own on the page! Wow, what nerve!
So what can be done?
Well, if you find one of her poems on a page that says they have permission, you can quote a few lines of the poem in a post, tell why you like the poem and then add a link to the page where interested people can read the whole poem. That is called "fair use."
If you can't find a page that says the poem is used with permission, you can guess that the owner of the poem doesn't really want it published on the internet. It is their poem after all! To post it anyway is, well, to say it nicely, it is taking something that doesn't belong to you. In the case of Maya Angelou I checked out her own website. Guess what? Not a single poem of hers is posted on her own website! There are links to places where you can buy books of her poetry and writing. Maybe that should be a message to us about how she wants people to access her work!
You can still post a small part of the poem and say what you like about it without posting a link to a place where it is illegally copied.
Now, I have been working with a specific person so people can get a handle on what this is all about -- but all the above is true of news sites, political sites, and all other kinds of sites. Remember: the page doesn't have to have a copyright notice on it for the material to be copyrighted. The only way you can know material is not copyrighted is if there is a notice by the actual owner of the material saying "permission is granted" for their material to be posted. Usually such permission also has the stipulation that you have to give credit. If you only use an insignificant part of it, you don't need permission, but it is still reasonable that you give credit.
Do that and it will make life much easier for the moderators. If you see a news article that you think others ought to read, but you fear they won't bother to follow the link you provide (which may be saying more to you than you realize), then (if it is true of course) copy and paste it and add the words "used with permission."
So, please follow the rules of NazNet.