Copyright question

[CassidyL]

Could I get some claification on rules for posting articles / pictures?

I checked the faqs and guidelines and can't find it or missed it.

I know other places articles shouldn't be posted entirely or at least a link and or credit must be given, but I noticed here some articles and pictures are posted without any mention of the site or author.

I would like to post articles too. Is copy- paste fine? Are the requirements different here because this forum is attached to the Golden Skate site?

 

[Mathman]

Hi, Cassidy. Golden Skate follows standard rules on the use of copyrighted material. (On the other hand, this is the Internet, so people violate these laws and courtesies all the time without penalty. OK, forget I said that.)

You should not post an article in it's entirety. Instead, you should give a link to it. You can also quote briefly from the article, after giving appropriate acknowledgment and credit to the author. (This falls under the "fair use" provisions of international copyright law -- quite a grey area, legally speaking.)

As for pictures, you should never post images unless you own the copyright AND the picture is hosted on your own web server. If you post an image from someone else's web site this is called "bandwidth theft," because it uses up the other person's band width without their permission, and they have to pay for this.

So again, it is always better to give a link to the picture, rather than to post the picture yourself, except in the case of your own pictures on your own web site. If you house someone else's copyrighted picture on your website, then you can post the image only if you get the permission of the copyright holder, and then you must say: "copyright by so-and-so" in your post.

Mathman