Copyright questions

[Lisa]

I thought I'd clear up some questions about copyright. I posted this ontop of another topic but I'm reposting this part on it's own for better reading.

This is from http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-fairuse.html (question 4)

How much of someone else's work can I use without getting permission?
Under the fair use doctrine of the U.S. copyright statute, it is permissible to use limited portions of a work including quotes, for purposes such as commentary, criticism, news reporting, and scholarly reports. There are no legal rules permitting the use of a specific number of words, a certain number of musical notes, or percentage of a work. Whether a particular use qualifies as fair use depends on all the circumstances. See also FL 102, Fair Use, and Circular 21, Reproductions of Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians.

Now of course if I were to post something that belonged to some one else claiming it was my work and not attributing copyright then I would be in violation of copy right.

[Siretsap]

Ok, but what is the point of this here?
That is for us laws, here in canada you can copy the lyrics of a whole song and change one sentence and still not be attributed a penalty for it.

[Lisa]

Originally posted by Siretsap
Ok, but what is the point of this here?
That is for us laws, here in canada you can copy the lyrics of a whole song and change one sentence and still not be attributed a penalty for it.

For posting stuff, unchanged. ie news articles.

[Invictus]

Siretsap - I don't know where you heard that, but you're dead wrong. Copyright laws in Canada are almost identical to those in the states, as far as the "Fair Use" clause goes. The difference is, in Canada, it is heavily governed by British Common Law. For the most part in this country, you can post whatever you want, wherever you want - as long as A) You are receiving NO commercial gain from doing so, and B) The proper copyright holder is acknowledged.

[Siretsap]

Ok, I don't know if you guys ever heard the radio show called Les Grandes Gueules on 94.3 fm (in montreal).
Well they took a song from celine dion and modified it a little. Celine and Rene tried to put a lawsuit on their hands, but it never went through.
They modified some of the Lyrics to make it funny but the song was still very much and you knew it was that song.

[Derrick]

lmao it doesnt matter if is US laws from what i could track down the snakes.com is located in the states:
Address: 2600 Southwest Frwy., Suite 500
City: Houston
StateProv: TX
PostalCode: 77098
Country: US

so US copyrightlaws are king. Which really sucks cause if you piss someone off due to a copyright violation they can just go to who ever is hosting the server and have them shut it down. Although thats only been an issue where movies and music are involved. Then tend to be more fanatical in thier copyright protection from my experience. If its "stolen" text you usually get a letter asking for its removal.

[eyespy]

You also have to respect posted copyright notices and many of the news organizations require that no portion of any article be reposted on the internet without prior written consent. I recently received an email from a friend who works at the Associated Press recommending that I remove one particular copyrighted article from this site. His boss was quite angry that it was republished without permission but had not yet taken any legal action. So my friend stepped in with a word to the wise to try and head off problems.

Fortunately the boss was satisfied that the article was removed and the member asked not to repost any more articles. The Associated Press has won a number of lawsuits when their articles were posted on a website as they have a very strict copyright notice that all news agencies who use their services are required to uphold.


Notice the "commentary, criticism..... etc. part of the Fair Use law? Websites have lost lawsuits because discussion was not deemed to be scholarly in tone. The web by its nature is a public event and participation cannot be limited to students, researchers, etc. They ended up being shut down or having to pay large fines. Even sites that won their lawsuits sometimes go bankrupt because of the legal fees.

Please play it safe and just post a link to the article rather than reposting any portion of it. Ssnakess.com does not have an onstaff legal team to handle any repercussions and copyrights must be respected according to the TOS here.