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The posting of copyrighted material

3K views 30 replies 17 participants last post by  Bark'n 
#1 ·
We are getting an increasing number of copyrighted articles being posted here and we need to stop it. The verbatim posting of these articles are illegal and can cause us a lot of problems. Over the next few weeks I will be going through the forum either editing or deleting many of violations I find. If you have a thread that is edited (or deleted) for us to comply, you will not be notified as that would be a lot of work.

Further, I will be adding an infraction for those that repeatedly post copyrighted material. Once cleaned up a member will have their post edited and be issued a warning. After the first warning, a hefty non-expiring infraction will be imposed.
 
#2 · (Edited)
I must assume this includes all "text" articles. Do photos from web sites fall in into the copyright or intellectual material rights area as well. I.E. pictures, of firearms, holsters, videos, from manufactuers, etc? I just want to be clear as to what is acceptable and what is not for the purposes of this forum.

Respectfully
Kyle
 
#3 ·
Pictures fall into the same category.

As a case in point. Suppose you post a picture of YOURS here. As soon as it is posted, it falls under the copyright of THIS site, and of course you. The copyright notice appears at the bottom of every page here. IN THEORY, if someone copied your picture and used it in another thread on the same site is a grey area. But if copied to another forum, then that is illegal.

Company logos are not allowed without the Company’s permission. Say you are a Ruger fan and decide to use the Ruger logo as your avatar. Legally not allowed unless you have Rugers permission. However, in a case like this I imagine Ruger would happily accept the free advertising your spreading of their logo creates. But technically, it is illegal.

The following link is to an article that Bumper edited to keep it legal.

Fixed Article............

Make no mistake folks. There are a fair number of sites that have received a summons. The fines can be very hefty. Many news sites are now watching carefully for copyright infringements.

Chris
Tucson Gun Rights Examiner
Conservative Examiner
 
#4 ·
url links are our friend! :banana:
 
#5 ·
Anyone who thinks this isn't a threat to this site has their head in the sand...

Having said that, I want to ask if the following is acceptable as it is the process we followed on another site...

If a new site has a story we wish to discuss, it was generally acceptable to copy a few lines as a part of a post, along with the proper url link..

The poster then had to summarize the rest of the story...

Is this acceptable?
 
#12 ·
If a new site has a story we wish to discuss, it was generally acceptable to copy a few lines as a part of a post, along with the proper url link..

The poster then had to summarize the rest of the story...

Is this acceptable?
That's pretty well what I had in mind, with the exception of the "summarize the rest of the story". But that's a good idea. Consider it added. It helps resolve a pet peeve of mine which is simply posting a simple link and making no comment on the article.


Is former President Bill Clinton's name copyrighted?
No, but it is covered by our rules regarding politics, unless it's gun related....
 
#6 ·
For Bumper and all. I just want to point out that anything written by Uncle's employees isn't covered. That goes for court rulings as prepared by a judge, Federal rules, statutes. But caution is needed as sometimes it isn't so easy to tell what is original work of a Federale and what is creative interpretation by a reporter.
 
#8 ·
Well seems I'll just stick to posting links to news articles and making up my own headline. I post a lot of news articles and copy and paste the text verbatim 99% of the time but I don't want it to cause headaches if that is the case. I have hot linked a few pictures but if a site does allow me to hot link an image I don't see how that is a copyright infraction. I'm only posting the URL to the image. I'm not saving the image to my hard drive and then hosting it on a 3rd party site such as http://photobucket.com

I'm pretty positive I will get a warning but time to change how I post news articles and images.
 
#10 ·
^^^^^^^^^^^Yeah^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

What a sad state of affairs, that even when you are giving credit to the person whose work or article it is, it creates a problem.


What a world we live in







If the folks at the psychic hotlines were really psychic, wouldn't they call you first?
 
#11 ·
If a new site has a story we wish to discuss, it was generally acceptable to copy a few lines as a part of a post, along with the proper url link..
That is the definition of "fair use" and is legally acceptable. The problem is with articles copied and posted verbatim.
 
#14 ·
Simple quotes and links with a brief summary should be easy to do, for anyone. Clicking on a link ain't so bad.
Not only is it not bad, it's how the Internet is supposed to work. As Tim Berners-Lee originally conceived it, all relevant content would eventually be linked. The reader follows the links. Today, with our broadband access and fast computers, for most people following a link is a 1-second detour. Opens a new tab, which you can read (or not) and close, and you're back to where you started.

It was never intended that if a person saw an interesting article, that they'd copy it in full, and repost it. In that way, you get needless duplication of content. You also get removal of context. Like Bumper, I also prefer it when the title of a post gives me a good idea of what it's about, and if there's a link, that there's a description of what it's about.

Because of the Armed Citizen situation, a lot of sites have suddenly grown skittish about quoting. It's possible to go overboard. FloridaConcealedCarry forum just instituted a total ban on any quoting whatsoever. That's ridiculous. Up to a paragraph with a link back to the source is fully within Fair Use guidelines. Armed Citizen was in the habit of reposting articles in full, and it was their gathering and reposting of entire articles that constituted their "product." If there was ever a case of blatant copyright infringement, they're the poster child for it.
 
#15 ·
Not only is it not bad, it's how the Internet is supposed to work. It was never intended that if a person saw an interesting article, that they'd copy it in full, and repost it.
Yeah, well. The original inventors of the linked method lacked foresight in two areas: (a) that the directory structures of target computer systems would prove to be highly changeable in practice, breaking links with each change; and (b) that the need to copy/paste data from links would prove to be about the only real method a person has to avoid (voluntary or other) corruption of the target data. A copied/pasted news article won't break due to a bad link. And, imagine the WikiLeaks type web sites of the world, if corrupt gov't hacks and officials could simply change the data and sidestep reality. Though, none of this is much of a problem, with discussion forums, in that the discussion more the point, rather than the linked information.
 
#16 ·
I guess I'm wondering why one I did was edited.... I copied a first few lines of the article and posted the link to the story at the very top of it..... copied title of article and all initial info (author, etc) .

Is that not the correct way ? If not, I'm not sure I'm getting how to do it ..... any clarification appreciated so we can do it correctly.
 
#21 ·
Provide me a link to the post in question and I will look into it. We have been "on the lookout" for articles that violate copyright law and editing/deleting them but if you posted the way you stated, it should not have been edited but without details I don't know the specifics.....

Can I get a ruling on posting photos? Lately, instead of copying a photo to my hard drive and then posting it on hosting site like Photobucket, what I have done is the following:

On the website where the photo is posted in original content, I have been right clicking and "copy image location." Then on this site, when I post the photo using the "Insert Image" icon in the toolbar, it will include the image in my post. Even though you can see the photo directly in my post, it is actually coming directly from a link to the original website. At least that is how I see it.
Yup, that's the way to do it. We are not going to get strict on images that do not have a copyright "C" on them. There is virtually no way that we can make rulings on every image that members post, but those marked with a copyright are no brainers. If someone finds an image of theirs posted here that violates copyright laws we will promptly remove it in order to comply.
 
#17 ·
Is that not the correct way ? If not, I'm not sure I'm getting how to do it ..... any clarification appreciated so we can do it correctly.
It's always going to be case-by-case, depending on the nature of what you're linking to. You have to be very cautious when quoting sources like Associated Press or New York Times, as these firms are very active in defending their copyright. So let's take one from NYT then.

Here's an article that details how the NRA has been working on behalf of gun owners, and it includes a little-known provision in the health insurance reform act:

In the health care debate this year ... the N.R.A.’s lobbyists worked with the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, to include a little-noticed provision banning insurance companies from charging higher premiums for people with guns in their homes.
That's a key sentence, which I edited down a bit both for concision and to respect Fair Use guidelines. It's also the essential information to illustrate the point I was making. The rest of the article talks about other things and there is zero sense and zero reason for me to quote the entire article.

This stuff isn't difficult. You copy, paste, and use the linking button at the top of your commenting window. It is sad and stupid to see so many people here quote an entire article just to make one small comment, and then someone quotes that entire comment, including the entire quoted article, just to add, "me too." And then someone quotes all of that in order to add, "me three" or "+1" and in one thread we have an entire article posted verbatim a dozen times because some members are so lazy that all they can do is hit the "reply with quote" button.

The safe way to go is to quote only that which is essential, no more than one paragraph or no more than three partial excerpts. Link back to the source. Add some of your own commentary or explanatory text, and you're good. Basically, you are replicating an RSS feed and news sources generally like that because it drives traffic to them, which increases their clout with advertisers.
 
#24 ·
The safe way to go is to quote only that which is essential, no more than one paragraph or no more than three partial excerpts. Link back to the source. Add some of your own commentary or explanatory text, and you're good. Basically, you are replicating an RSS feed and news sources generally like that because it drives traffic to them, which increases their clout with advertisers.
I always put the link, and then copy the first part to the point it gives the main info..... which then also includes their title, source, date, and author info. Usually that's the first paragraph.

However, mine was edited, so that's why I asked.... I couldn't see any difference except for one quote from the bottom of the article that I included had been deleted.

Only trying to do it correctly, and trying to be sure ... that way you aren't wasting youir time "fixing" any of them either.
 
#18 ·
Well, I am definitely on notice! I am doing my best to comply with copyright laws.

Can I get a ruling on posting photos? Lately, instead of copying a photo to my hard drive and then posting it on hosting site like Photobucket, what I have done is the following:

On the website where the photo is posted in original content, I have been right clicking and "copy image location." Then on this site, when I post the photo using the "Insert Image" icon in the toolbar, it will include the image in my post. Even though you can see the photo directly in my post, it is actually coming directly from a link to the original website. At least that is how I see it.

Is that a copyright violation? I believe the term is called "hot linking," but I'm not exactly sure on that.

I must say, if photo's are no longer acceptable to put in the discussion forum it's going to get pretty boring. However, we must comply with the law.
 
#19 ·
On the website where the photo is posted in original content, I have been right clicking and "copy image location." Then on this site, when I post the photo using the "Insert Image" icon in the toolbar, it will include the image in my post. Even though you can see the photo directly in my post, it is actually coming directly from a link to the original website.
That's perfect, and the preferred method of referencing an image from another web site's URL. It results in a LINK. As such, you're not removing control from the copyright holder and the publisher. Instead, you're allowing them full control over the source and simply pointing to it. Exactly as it should be.

In "edit" mode or when creating a post, look closely at the code used to create that link. Notice that it absolutely is a link, instead of a copy of the image. The "IMG" tags surrounding the URL of the image make it a link. Just as the "URL" tags surrounding the URL of a web page is a link. No infringement.

I must say, if photo's are no longer acceptable to put in the discussion forum it's going to get pretty boring. However, we must comply with the law.
Nobody's asking anyone to stop referencing images. The requirement is only to stop copying material.
 
#23 ·
#28 ·
Today I received a heads up warning with direction toward this thread.
Seeing what i see here I now understand.

Ironically my long time norm had been to post parts and sections but earlier this year I switched to posting the entire content of an article.
I'll switch back to my past norm.

Thanks for the heads up JD!

- Janq
 
#29 ·
Just a quick note on "Fair Use" doctrine:

If you are posting a copyrighted story, our rules permit the first paragraph being copied verbatim
In many cases, the first paragraph will encapsulate the concept of an article and it's a good choice, if you need a quote. But sometimes you might want to quote some other part that's relevant. The thing to keep in mind is that you run a risk of copyright violation when you quote more than a paragraph in total. As a ballpark figure, you have around 3-5 sentences you are free to quote. Same practice applies if you're quoting material to support an argument or establishing a proof.
 
#31 ·
There are several ways to accomplish this task, however, easiest way is the following method I prefer:

1) Go to page of the story/article/website you want to post a link to.

2) With your mouse cursor, go to the top of your web browser to the address bar where the URL is listed and do a simple left button mouse click. This will highlight the complete web address of the page/article/website that is displayed on your browser. (http:// www. )

3) Once the URL/web address has been highlighted, hover your cursor over it and perform a right button mouse click. Scroll down the list and select copy. This will store or copy that URL address to your clipboard.

4) Now return to the Defensive Carry post you would like to insert the link and move your cursor to the portion of your post where you would like the link to appear.

5) Perform a right button mouse click and select paste and it will insert a link to that website into your post.

An alternative method to step #5 would be to complete everything up to step #4 then on the tool bar at the top of your post, you'll see a series of icons for Bold, Italics, Underline and all the rest. Click on the insert link icon (which is the first little globe, without the red X) It will open a "dialog box" which says "Please enter the URL of your link". Use the right mouse button and Paste the URL which you have already copied into that address bar. Then click OK and it will insert a link into your post at the point you last had your cursor.

I hope this helps!
 
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