ARRGGHHH!!! Copyright Laws!

[TRFrance]

Ok folks, I’m not trying to cause trouble here, but where do we get the 30% number from? I’ve never seen that anywhere, as far as what I've read concerning copyright law. Is the 30% rule a matter of law, or just a preference of this website?

Also...what if the information is not copyrighted; does the 30% rule still apply?

[The Mrs]

Originally Posted by TRFrance

Ok folks, I’m not trying to cause trouble here, but where do we get the 30% number from? I’ve never seen that anywhere, as far as what I've read concerning copyright law. Is the 30% rule a matter of law, or just a preference of this website?

Also...what if the information is not copyrighted; does the 30% rule still apply?

Yes, I think that was just an arbitrary figure we came up with to give as an example.

And most published articles on the web today fall under copyright protections (news, articles, etc.) which is mainly what our members post, so we don't really run into many not copyrighted material.

Here is an excerpt I found regarding this:

Fair Use of Copyrighted Material

The fourth and final factor is "the effect of the use upon the potential market value or value of the copyrighted work." So, if you copy an entire article from CNN's website, you may be a copyright infringer since you've arguably reduced the market for their site. The recipient of your copy has no need to visit CNN's site. You gave them the article.

If you were to copy the headline and first paragraph, and then told them to go to CNN.com for the rest, you're more likely to have the protection of "fair use." If anything, you've helped create a potential market by giving a teaser sample of the whole article.

by Mark Grossman
Copyright Laws on the Internet
Grossman Law Group

[The Mrs]

A couple more interesting FAQs:

1. What does an author have to do to obtain copyright protection for his or her work?

Absolutely nothing! Under the present Copyright Act, copyright protection begins automatically upon creation of a work, and the work is "created" when it is fixed in a tangible medium for the first time. The work does not have to be registered with the U.S. Copyright Office, nor does it have to carry a copyright notice. Both are advisable, however. See Questions 7-9 below.

2. Why would I want to register my copyright?

Although copyright ownership in a work attaches at the moment of creation and is not lost for failure to register, a prerequisite to a lawsuit alleging copyright infringement is registration with the U.S. Copyright Office. Thus, one could register a copyright after an infringement has occurred, but, in general, failure to register a work before an infringement has occurred means that one may not obtain either statutory (as opposed to actual) damages or attorneys' fees if the registration has not been made within three months of the first publication of the work (sections 411 and 412 of the US Copyright Law).

UC Copyright Info from University of California

If I'm reading this right...there is no such thing as non-copyrighted material.

[TRFrance]

well, I do see your point, and I appreciate the response.

Just wanted to clarify though...

There's a lot of non-commercial material on the 'net that that the writer doesn't particularly want to copyright (a lot of religious material is like this). They post it on the net for full public consumption, and dont mind if other people copy it and repost/republish it, as long as it they receive proper attribution for their work (website link, etc.). To them, since the dissemination of the material is the whole point of them writing it, they have no problem with people sharing it with others... as a matter of fact, they welcome it.

so that was what my question was geared toward, as far as non-copyrighted material is concerned (even though, as you said, even non-copyrighted material is still copyrighted in a sense... if that makes sense).

Blessings.

[The Mrs]

Originally Posted by TRFrance

well, I do see your point, and I appreciate the response.

Just wanted to clarify though...

There's a lot of non-commercial material on the 'net that that the writer doesn't particularly want to copyright (a lot of religious material is like this). They post it on the net for full public consumption, and dont mind if other people copy it and repost/republish it, as long as it they receive proper attribution for their work (website link, etc.). To them, since the dissemination of the material is the whole point of them writing it, they have no problem with people sharing it with others... as a matter of fact, they welcome it.

so that was what my question was geared toward, as far as non-copyrighted material is concerned (even though, as you said, even non-copyrighted material is still copyrighted in a sense... if that makes sense).

Blessings.

I understand what you're saying. I know that Bro. Atkinson has a couple of Bible Studies on his Apostolic.net site that are not copyrighted.

I guess you just have to be informed and know what's what, and what's cool to post and what's not. For the most part, the Admin Team has had to work pretty hard to get our members to comply with the laws. I started this thread in hopes that we would have more of our members better informed so that we don't have to work so hard. You've helped with that. Thanks!