Re: [videoblogging] Re: GUBA

[Randolfe Wicker]

"It's just not good net-etiquette to copy and paste entire articles. The article is not yours to publish."   I'm not great on etiquette.  I subscribe to the New York Times.  Anyone can access articles from the last five days for free.  If I am creating a discussion thread at The Immortality Institute referring to some scientific article or news story from the NYT, most people won't bother to click a link, sign up and read it.   If the discussion thread continues for over five days (most do), then it is impossible for others to get the article without paying for it unless they are NYT subscribers.   Since The Immortality Institute is a 501 (c) nonprofit corporation, we act as a kind of repository for information.  As an Immortalist, it is more important to me to share valuable and important information with others devoted to stopping the disease of aging than it is to "respect" the NYT "technical" copyright.   I don't know exactly what the law is.  However, if the NYT wants to pay a lawyer to go after me for sharing knowledge with others, (1) they would be giving themselves a black eye from the bad publicity and (2) they would be acting in a financially stupid fashion since such article sharing doesn't really harm them.   I'm reminded of the case in which a guy was convicted of murder after the New Jersey Turnpike revealed his car had passed through an "automatic pass" device right before and after the murder of his estranged girlfriend.  The court ruled that they could use that evidence because a police officer could have sat there and recorded the license plate of every passing car.   Well, I buy a copy of the New York Times.  I could cut out the article and show it to as many of my friends as I wished.  Is it so different for me to share it "for free" with my more numerous friends around the world on the Internet? Randolfe (Randy) Wicker   Videographer, Writer, Activist Advisor: The Immortality Institute Hoboken, NJ http://www.randywickerreporting.blogspot.com/ 201-656-3280     ----- Original Message ----- From: Steve Garfield To: videoblogging@yahoogroups.com Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2005 8:30 AM Subject: Re: [videoblogging] Re: GUBA I would suggest consulting a lawyer. Also, read this: http://www.eff.org/bloggers/lg/faq-ip.php Where it says, in part: "Questions About Copyright I found something interesting on someone else's blog. May I quote it? Yes. Short quotations will usually be fair use, not copyright infringement. The Copyright Act says that "fair use...for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright." So if you are commenting on or criticizing an item someone else has posted, you have a fair use right to quote. The law favors "transformative" uses — commentary, either praise or criticism, is better than straight copying — but courts have said that even putting a piece of an existing work into a new context (such as a thumbnail in an image search engine) counts as "transformative." The blog's author might also have granted you even more generous rights through a Creative Commons license, so you should check for that as well. " It's just not good net-etiquette to copy and paste entire articles. The article is not yours to publish. On Nov 21, 2005, at 7:03 PM, Randolfe Wicker wrote: The free distribution of copyrighted material on the Internet is very widespread.  I personally copy and paste entire articles from the New York Times on nonprofit sites like The Immortality Institute www.imminst.org   The thinking is that since no one profits from this site, free sharing of information by people who have obtained it legally isn't a serious commercial offense.   I'm not sure the lawyers would agree with that.  However, no one I know of has gotten any flack for violations of copyright when used in this manner. --Steve -- Home Page - http://stevegarfield.com Video Blog - http://stevegarfield.blogs.com Text Blog - http://offonatangent.blogspot.com Like Paul Revere, leading the citizen's media revolution. YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS  Visit your group "videoblogging" on the web.    To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:  [EMAIL PROTECTED]    Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.