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Re: Thou shalt not...

Pat — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 21:11:21 GMT

unlawflcombatnt:
I have both a comment and a question.

Thanks for adding comments about forum posts. I was originally addressing web pages, which are automatically copyrighted. Post ownership on a public forum is determined by the owner, through the terms of use. Before quoting from any forum, to be perfectly legal, you must find out whether the forum administrator and/or owner claims ownership of posts. If they don't, then the posts are usually owned by the author. The whole thing can get pretty sticky, so it's easier to just not post previously posted material, no matter where it comes from. This does NOT include general government publications, including web material, since, as you state, we are the owners.

"No referral links," means no links to other web sites where you get paid for directing traffic or to sell something that isn't yours. This is an effort to hold down spam, that's all. If the business or product is yours,and you're participating in the commuinty, rather than a "fly by night" marketer, by all means include a link in your signature.

Thanks for asking, and welcome to the community!

Re: Thou shalt not...

unlawflcombatnt — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:50:58 GMT

Pat:

Post complete articles from another web site. It's an infringement on copyright, as any text published to the web (or elsewhere) is automatically copyrighted according to law. This includes recipes, news releases and book excerpts.

If you've posted such material, please try to find it and edit it to two or three paragraphs. That generally constitutes "fair use."

Pat,

I have both a comment and a question.

I have my own forum, where readers can go to an post complete articles from. Anyone visiting my forum ( Economic Populist Forum ) can re-post anything that I've personally written myself. In fact, I would encourage people to do so. (This would not apply, however, to articles from outside sources that I've re-posted on my forum.) Visitors to my forum can also repost any graphics I've taken or revised that come from government sources, such as the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Census Bureau, or the Treasury Dept. Below is an example of a revised and reposted graphic from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, which should be repostable by anyone. (We taxpayers pay for the government, and are the owners of the government, and have every right to share and repost publicly available information.)

In contrast, however, I would urge caution about reposting images (from my forum) that come from private sources. Though even most of those are probably OK to repost, some may not be.

I'm making this point about reposting from my forum is that this is one of the reasons I started my own forum -- to serve as a source of posts that could be shared on the web. At least one member is an author, and would probably appreciate having his articles posted elsewhere as well.

_________________

6. No referral links are allowed either in a signature or the body of a post. That doesn't mean you can't post links to your own site or to others if it's relevant to the conversation.

I'm not sure I follow this.

Does this mean that it's OK to post a link to my own forum, as long as it is not in the signature?

Or does it just mean you just can't post a commercial ad link, but can post a link to your own site if it is a non-commercial site?

Re: Thou shalt not...

Pat — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:14:19 GMT

lamuneca0325:
Hi Pat,

Thanks for reminding us of this. Is it ok to link directly to the other site and/or post others' work if you credit them (say who wrote it and where it came from)?

Terri

Link to the site by all means, but don't post anything other than a couple of paragraphs. Anything more than that is copyright violation, even with attribution.

Re: Thou shalt not...

lamuneca0325 — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 14:50:33 GMT

Hi Pat,

Thanks for reminding us of this. Is it ok to link directly to the other site and/or post others' work if you credit them (say who wrote it and where it came from)?

Terri

Re: Thou shalt not...

babbyb — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 08:24:22 GMT

I love that website! It is saving me so much money now that I know what to look for when it comes to buying beef!

Annie

Re: Thou shalt not...

joan of ark — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 23:32:52 GMT

Thanks Pat, as writers we've really learned to appreciate the value of what we write and try to respect the writings of others. I cringe when I find people "stealing" from others and I really encourage people to be as honest as possible. Being honest is good "karma" and following the golden rule will keep you in good with the world around you and the Guy upstairs :) A large part of John's book is on our website www.all-about-meat.com but I did cut out a fair bit of the frugal stuff so people can buy the book and get a good value. So much is free on the internet but we need to respect those things that aren't too.

blessings,

joan of ark

Thou shalt not...

Pat — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 20:36:27 GMT

Post complete articles from another web site. It's an infringement on copyright, as any text published to the web (or elsewhere) is automatically copyrighted according to law. This includes recipes, news releases and book excerpts.

If you've posted such material, please try to find it and edit it to two or three paragraphs. That generally constitutes "fair use."

Thanks!