slin@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Steven Philip Lin) (08/03/89)
What is the legality of quoting from articles? The people at the company I work at are extremely interested in people's comments about their products. They would like to quote or perhaps paraphrase articles in their ads, reports, marketing, etc. Is it legal to just extract articles without getting the consent of the author? Or, must we consider posted articles to be published works with all rights reserved by the poster?
rsalz@bbn.com (Rich Salz) (08/03/89)
Legality aside, you will probably get a Very Bad reputation on the net if you use Usenet articles in advertising without getting the explicit permission of the people you're quoting. Legality not aside, it's *probably* illegal to do it without permission: since the U.S. signed the Berne Convention, everything has a copyright unless it explicitly says otherwise. This article has no copyright. /r$ -- Please send comp.sources.unix-related mail to rsalz@uunet.uu.net. Use a domain-based address or give alternate paths, or you may lose out.
slzr@GTE.COM (Suzanne Sluizer) (08/03/89)
In article <16006@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> slin@cory.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Steven Philip Lin) writes: >What is the legality of quoting from articles? The people at the company >I work at are extremely interested in people's comments about their products. >They would like to quote or perhaps paraphrase articles in their ads, reports, >marketing, etc. Is it legal to just extract articles without getting the >consent of the author? Or, must we consider posted articles to be >published works with all rights reserved by the poster? The following is offered with the obligatory "I'm not a lawyer. If you want good legal advice, what you're getting here is worth what you're paying for it." Keeping that in mind ... As I understand it, all articles on USENET are considered copyrighted, even if there is no explicit copyright notice. In any event, using someone's work in an ad, marketing, etc., without their consent is, at best, rude, and at worst, could involve your company in a law suit. Why don't you just ask the people involved, and show a little common courtesy? -- Suzanne Sluizer CSNET: slzr%gte.com@RELAY.CS.NET GTE Laboratories UUCP: ...!harvard!bunny!slzr 617-466-2882 "Truth is a pathless land." -- Krishnamurti
rwright@novavax.UUCP (Ronald K. Wright) (08/05/89)
In article <16006@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> slin@cory.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Steven Philip Lin) writes: >What is the legality of quoting from articles? The people at the company >I work at are extremely interested in people's comments about their products. >They would like to quote or perhaps paraphrase articles in their ads, reports, >marketing, etc. Is it legal to just extract articles without getting the >consent of the author? Or, must we consider posted articles to be >published works with all rights reserved by the poster? In the words of the immortal sage...obtain competent legal counsel. Now with that disclaimer aside, and recognizing that this is free legal advice, and cetainly not worth much more than that: The latest revision of the Federal statutes on copyright seem to make the sort of general publication such as this fall from copyright unless first copyrighted. I did research on the question for myself as to whether I could subsequently copyright something I had posted on the net and my conclusion was that I probably could not. This is not a very well defined area of the law both new and unique. Therefore, I think you can quote or paraphrase and treat the material as public domain. However, if you get sued would you let me know? If I were advising, I would suggest that you obtain permission to quote, if nothing else it is a nice thing to do. c 1989 {all rights reserved} :-) ;-) ======================================================================== R. K. Wright MD JD | uflorida!novavax!medexam!rkw Chief Medical Examiner | uflorida!novavax!rwright Associate Professor Pathology | University of Miami School of Medicine | ========================================================================
esker@abaa.uucp (Lawrence Esker) (08/10/89)
In article <1418@novavax.UUCP> rwright@novavax.UUCP (Ronald K. Wright) writes: <In article <16006@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> slin@cory.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Steven Philip Lin) writes: <>What is the legality of quoting from articles? ... < <I did research on the question for myself as to whether I could subsequently <copyright something I had posted on the net and my conclusion was that I <probably could not. This is not a very well defined area of the law both <new and unique. < <Therefore, I think you can quote or paraphrase and treat the material as <public domain. However, if you get sued would you let me know? < <If I were advising, I would suggest that you obtain permission to quote, if <nothing else it is a nice thing to do. < <c 1989 {all rights reserved} :-) ;-) If Ronald actually did the research he claimed, he should have known that using the letter 'c' is NOT a legal and binding copyright statement. You MUST use either the copyright symbol ('c' with a circle around it) or the full word 'copyright'. Makes me doubt the validity of the rest of his statements! <======================================================================== <R. K. Wright MD JD | uflorida!novavax!medexam!rkw <Chief Medical Examiner | uflorida!novavax!rwright <Associate Professor Pathology | <University of Miami School of Medicine | <======================================================================== (BTW. Sorry to have sounded so harse, but I was 'spanked' by my company for doing the same mistake. I am usually a nice guy.) -- ---------- Lawrence W. Esker ---------- Modern Amish: Thou shalt not need any \ * * * ******* / computer that is not IBM compatible. \ * * * * * / \ * * * * * ***** / Sr. Hardware/ASIC Design Engineer \ * * * * * * / Allen-Bradley Communications Div. \ ******* * * ******* / Work: (313)668-2500 Home: (313)973-8561 ----------------------------- Compuserve: 76337,2524 UseNet Smart: esker@abaa.uucp or abaa!esker@itivax.iti.org UseNet Other: __!uunet!mimsy!rutgers!citi!itivax!abaa!esker Nothing left to do but :-) ;-) ;-D