Just so you know - internet copyright regs

[Beach girl]

You might find this interesting reading:

Thomas G. Field, Jr. | Copyright on the Internet | UNH School of Law

Note section on fair use:

"Fair use is one of the most important, and least clear cut, limits to copyright. It permits some use of others' works even without approval. But when? Words like "fair" or "reasonable" cannot be precisely defined, but here are a few benchmarks.

"Uses that advance public interests such as criticism, education or scholarship are favored -- particularly if little of another's work is copied. Uses that generate income or interfere with a copyright owner's income are not. "

----------------------------

It is not fair use to copy an entire article and post it here. Many free-lance writers these days are paid in part by how many clicks their work brings to the publication that originally published it. Putting the whole thing here has a negative effective on their income. Putting in a link and a couple sentences, so those interested can click through, helps those writers and the organization that published the article.

'nuff said?

 

[Bottesini]

What about Deaf news aggregate-rs? THey put all the Deaf news in one handy RSS feed.

Really a lot of us get the deaf news here...

And I often click the links to see if there is anything further such as pictures.

 

[Beach girl]

I do too, on the ones I'm interested in.

I have several friends who are free-lance writers, and they complain about this sort of thing all the time. They LOVE being linked to; they HATE their whole articles being reprinted by someone else.

 

[saywhatkid]

Your point? Should we just post links and let the membership click away from AD?

 

[Beach girl]

Sure, why not? Right-click and it will open a new window. You can come right back to AD, and you'll know that your click made a little money for the hard-working writer.

 

[TWA]

As a writer myself, I think you're making a big deal out of nothing here. Most of what is posted here are links to news sources, and as long as nobody is earning money off reposting, then no laws are broken. Furthermore, writers are usually paid on a flat rate or per-word basis, not by clicks, as you stated. Sounds kinda fishy if you ask me. I've written for several online publications and not once was the pay based on a per-click basis.

As long as the original link is provided along with the text of the article, and no money is being made, then nobody is breaking any rules.

Edit: it would be different if people were reposting creative works, blog posts, etc. I would arduously defend the right of any creative work, but all I see being posted here in their entirety are news articles.

 

[Banjo]

Well, I wouldn't encourage posting the whole article even if you provide the link. In fact, it's frowned upon. What people should do is post a portion of the article and people can click onto the link to read the rest.

 

[TWA]

Well, I wouldn't encourage posting the whole article even if you provide the link. In fact, it's frowned upon. What people should do is post a portion of the article and people can click onto the link to read the rest.

I agree with that, because it's annoying to have a large block of text, but for smaller articles? eh...

 

[Beach girl]

OK. The original author of one of the articles Miss-Delectable recently posted joined AD to post his complaint about it. Looks like that one has been taken down now.

I don't want to make a big deal out of nothing, but I do think it's important to abide by fair use regulations. What I understand from other writers is that links are good, whole articles, not so much.

I don't pretend to be an expert on this stuff; just going by what others have said.

By the way, Alex, I just posted on the "What did you do today" thread, when you come to D.C., drop me a note, and hubby and I will take you out for lunch or dinner to King Street Blues.
http://www.kingstreetblues.com/

I think you'll like it. Also think you'll like D.C.! I'm a retired Federal worker-bee myself.

 

[TWA]

OK. The original author of one of the articles Miss-Delectable recently posted joined AD to post his complaint about it. Looks like that one has been taken down now.

I don't want to make a big deal out of nothing, but I do think it's important to abide by fair use regulations. What I understand from other writers is that links are good, whole articles, not so much.

I don't pretend to be an expert on this stuff; just going by what others have said.

I missed that post. Was it a news article printed on a new source webpage?

And thanks, I'll look you up when I get to DC. I've been two times for a week each time, and I love it. Deaf awareness is much higher, I noticed. I felt very inspired and proud to be an American when I was there.

 

[Beach girl]

I don't even remember what it was about now. It was an entire news article re-posted from a newspaper someplace. The author joined AD to complain and said that the number of clicks on his original article went way down after it was posted here.

Does that sound fishy to you? He sounded dead serious and pretty peeved about it. Botts and I told him how to report it to the admins, which I guess he did, because I can't find it now. Maybe Botts memory is better than mine and she can remember the topic.

Really, I don't want to make a mountain out of a molehill or anything, but like Banjo said too, re-posting an entire article is frowned upon. Granted most of the ones printed here are fairly short, but still... it's better to do the right thing, no? Not much of an effort to make one click to get to the original source.

I do know newspapers can charge for their ads based on their click-rate, if that's what you call it. Print newspapers are losing a lot of money, and the on-line versions haven't quite figured out how to make up for it yet. Wait 'til you get here; you will see a lot of discussion in the Washington Post about it.

Anyway - toddling off to bed now.

 

[jillio]

As a writer myself, I think you're making a big deal out of nothing here. Most of what is posted here are links to news sources, and as long as nobody is earning money off reposting, then no laws are broken. Furthermore, writers are usually paid on a flat rate or per-word basis, not by clicks, as you stated. Sounds kinda fishy if you ask me. I've written for several online publications and not once was the pay based on a per-click basis.

As long as the original link is provided along with the text of the article, and no money is being made, then nobody is breaking any rules.

Edit: it would be different if people were reposting creative works, blog posts, etc. I would arduously defend the right of any creative work, but all I see being posted here in their entirety are news articles.

Correct. When I post anything that is subject to copy write or fair use laws, I cite.