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August 14, 2007 at 13:05:29
This Article was Submitted by the Original Author by sherry clark Page 1 of 1 page(s) |
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I am an honest person, but I make mistakes. In fact, thousands of well-meaning bloggers like me may be guilty of copyright infringement. I have been accused of this and outed by my online community, and I want to share my story with you. I copied an article from this site in its entirety with proper credit to the original author and opednews.com at the top. I copied it just as it appeared on the web to my favorite progressive community blog. I also included a hyperlink to the original article on Opednews.com. It was clear that I did not claim responsibility to the work. Since I am well known in this on-line community for my views on 9-11, it was obvious I agreed with the authors of these insightful articles. I have submitted a few articles to OpEdnews.com, and though they aren't overly popular or earth-shattering, I would appreciate it if anyone felt they were worthy of reposting somewhere else. Because I am an amateur, I never would have thought of copyright violations and thought they may be part of the public domain once I posted them on the web. I have learned that this is a very common myth. According to Stanford University's Fair Use and Copyright page:
"As a practical rule, you should always start with the presumption that, if the creative work you want to use was first published after 1922, copyright law protects it. There are only two ways that a work published after 1922 is not protected: the owner of the work made a mistake (such as failing to renew the copyright); or the work does not meet the minimum standards for copyright protection."
I quoted the above paragraph word for word from the Stanford University website, yet that was not a copyright infringement because of what's known as Fair Use.
According to Stanford University, "If a creative work is protected under intellectual property laws, your unauthorized use may still be legal. This is because there are exceptions to each of the laws protecting creative work --situations where authorization is not required. For example, under copyright law, a principle known as fair use permits you to copy small portions of a work for certain purposes such as scholarship or commentary. Under the fair use doctrine, you could reproduce a few lines of a song lyric in a music review without getting permission from the songwriter (or whoever owns the copyright in the song)."
Since I copied the OpEdNews.com articles in their entirety, according to this, I should have obtained permission from the owner. This was also the view of Brian Rothenburg, the Director of my favorite local Progressive Community blog, Progress Ohio. He states in the e-mail to me explaining their position to remove me and my offending posts, "Quoting a document in part and then commenting is fair use. Quoting in full is a copyright issue."
I am no lawyer, and now I wonder if I should have obtained reprint permission from the authors, OpEdNews.com or both? Is there a page or blog entry on OpEdNews.com that covers this subject? I know we are all too busy with all the other atrocities in our country to really think about this issue, but I want to know for sure what I can do in the future... (so I can legally inform others of the more important issues affecting all of us!!!)
If there are other authors like me who would like their articles to be included in other public forums, is there be a place for us to give permission for other bloggers and publishers to more easily use our material? Personally, I would love for OpEdNews to be a free-use site. I just learned about Creative Commons today which allows authors to choose their own level of copyright protection. Perhaps this will empower OpEdNews.com to grow further!
We the people need a way to make the AP (American Propaganda) outdated and "of little practical significance." I love Opednews.com, many of the OpEdNews.com authors, commenters and Rob. It is my intention to honor all of this site's policies and authors. One reason I reposted these articles was to provide another soap box for what is said here. Now it seems my intentions may have misfired... I am in pretty big trouble with my favorite on-line community because of this, and let's face it, now I risk being in trouble with my favorite news site because of my confession!
Hopefully all involved in my misconceptions(?) will forgive me (their material has been taken down) but an even more productive outcome of all of this would be a known policy of article-sharing here at OpEdNews.com.
I distribute movies that are freely shared by their creators to educate the public. I know we all have to pay the bills, yet some things are too important to keep to ourselves.
I hope there is a way we can co-operate to make it easier to spread the word of our world. Many authors, artists, activists and movie directors have been extremely generous in sharing the truth with our fellow citizens. I don't really know the official policy of this site, but I think I understand its heart.
Yes, this article was submitted by the original author, but who am I except a sum total of all of the people that came before me? What original thought can I form that hasn't been influenced by a hundred people that drew me toward it? I am but one voice, but the echo of many.
To me, the intent of OpEdNews.com is to inform the population through feeds, banners, links, other sites and search engines. I think I captured the intent of that mission by reposting the material, but if I violated the terms of service through copyright infringement, I want to know. I wouldn't want to violate OpEdNews.com's policy from the respect I have for those who are here, but if I could, I would want to influence the policy toward an empowered environment of sharing.
www.TheLibertyVoice.com
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
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Good point
I think you raised good questions and it would actually be a good idea if a site like OpEdNews published in detail or in essence the rules visitors and writers are expected to follow. Thanks for doing your best to be honest. by Mark A. Goldman (81 articles, 2 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 243 comments) on Tuesday, Aug 14, 2007 at 4:00:25 PM  (0+)
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for my part
on this site or any other, for whatever I write, unless specifically marked with a 'copywrited, reserved' sort of notice (which I virtually never do), it's all open for being copied, with the proviso that if a thing is altered it should not be attributed to me (don't misquote me!), and no attribution at all is ever needed. I don't write for ego, credit, or money, but as part of the 'community mind'. If someone takes what I think is my idea, meme, or phrase, even if they rework it, then I consider that a success -- that's the purpose: get the stuff out there. Frankly, with some of the memes or ideas I think I may have started and/or propagated, and considering the current political realities, I'm just as happy if Homeland Security, FBI, Military Intelligence, or the NSA can't easily trace them to me! :-D Anonymous is good! by Blue Pilgrim (0 articles, 3 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 997 comments) on Tuesday, Aug 14, 2007 at 4:29:54 PM (0+)
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Good point. This should clear things up
Evaluating what we already have, I realized, it could be clearer. Here's a new FAQ that should clear things up. and related verbiage in our writers' guidelines: These are not written in stone. Your feedback would be appreciated. Comment below. by Rob Kall (952 articles, 4177 quicklinks, 374 diaries, 2087 comments [45 recommended, 3 rejected]) on Tuesday, Aug 14, 2007 at 7:01:35 PM (0+)
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Reply: YEA ROB!!!!
Thank you so much for this policy to be clearly stated...and for you to choose the policy that you have. I am so grateful to have found such a great community of support for the great mission that must be accomplished! Power to the People!!!! Long live OpEdNews.com! Now all I have to do is let my local progressive site know that I have not violated their policy after all!!!! I just love happy endings!!! Thanks again, Rob! I'm definately going to give $ to OpEdNews.com this month!!! by sherry clark (47 articles, 0 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 116 comments [4 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Tuesday, Aug 14, 2007 at 9:02:58 PM (0+)
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Yes to
confusion over OpEdNews.com's policies; the importance of getting an idea out of a cave and into the light of day; getting paid; the importance of getting an idea out of a cave and into the light of day; citing the original author is a MUST, as is ACCURACY; probably more... by Rachel Gladstone-Gelman (36 articles, 0 quicklinks, 8 diaries, 29 comments) on Tuesday, Aug 14, 2007 at 8:34:34 PM (0+)
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So much for making up with my on-line community...
I got this e-mail from Progress Ohio's On-line Communication Director after he read Rob's response to my article... Sherry, ...Your unreasonable actions and apparent outright refusal to follow our clearly stated Terms of Service left us no other option other than deactivation of your account. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Okay...Am I missing something? Is reposting from this site legal or not? Do you think Mr. Harding just didn't understand what Rob meant by... "We do not have the right to give permission for reprinting of articles we have reprinted," and took it out of context to build a case against me? Since I post about the extremely controversial subject of 9-11 (here in Columbus, Ohio), I have been asked to "back off," and "be cool" by the people there. They also have never used that handy "terms of service" on others who libeled and threatened me on this blog because of my views. You may wonder why I care so much about this community. I care because it is my community, and many there still don't understand the truth about 9-11. If I am not in the community, they won't have anyone who will write about 9-11. I think they would like that very much, but I'm not giving up on them yet. If anyone has a smart and kind way of responding to this man, I could use a little help. I thank you... sherry clark by sherry clark (47 articles, 0 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 116 comments [4 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Wednesday, Aug 15, 2007 at 2:01:22 AM (0+)
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Reply: Sherry
I really don't know where to begin. There is no clear answer, because, especially now, keeping a lid on the issues you find most important (9-11, etc.) is dangerous, WHILE colliding with uncertain copyright laws. It does seem as if some iron-clad ones are made to be broken. Confused? MOST understandable. I am, at times. Making waves in the neediest place is optimal, but you might want to reevaluate where you are (blogwise) and why. by Rachel Gladstone-Gelman (36 articles, 0 quicklinks, 8 diaries, 29 comments) on Wednesday, Aug 15, 2007 at 9:13:26 AM (0+)
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Reply: Thank you for your insight...
I have been evaluating my blog community, and you have a valid point about it. Here in Ohio, let's just say there isn't much available progressive networking groups and that is why they won my support from almost the very beginning. I honestly think the copyright issue they are using against me may have less to do with copyright infringement and more about censorship...or at least that is the way is seems to me. I think he took Rob's line of exception concerning reposts (content not submitted by the original author) as the foundation of his case against me and built it from there. Once that foundation is removed, the whole thing comes crashing down...kind of like 9-11 and the war!!!! Well, thanks again...I think making things appear complicated is how the enemy operates...but I find the whole thing rather simple. I didn't violate Rob's terms of service (through great luck and fortune of the way I posted the material) and therefore I didn't violate Progress Ohio's. thanks again for taking the time to reply... sherry clark by sherry clark (47 articles, 0 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 116 comments [4 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Wednesday, Aug 15, 2007 at 10:01:21 AM (0+)
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free exchange of ideas
Sherry, your copy and paste of others' work is as necessary to a free society as the original work, itself. Rothenburg: Get over it. If Sherry doesn't claim credit but clearly cites original author and credits same, if she makes no profit and merely furthers the free exchange of information, she is in service to America more than a mere copyright law. Particularly in this day of media consolidation, her repetition of what she sees as a good or notable idea is much more valid than the Supreme Court's estimation of money as speech. If money is free speech, then so is identity. Who we are must be protected equally-- one can't logically patent life-- but yet it is done. Then why not patent hygiene? Patent generic items like soap. No. It's simply not practical, like patenting deep breathing. Yet corporations are allowed to own patents on private citizens' DNA, on living things like soybeans and corn. Take a risk, Mr. Rothenburg, be free and support free exchange of ideas rather than a narrow, cautious legalistically correct and safe existence. Your responsibility to your job is secondary to your debt to those who made you free of the feudalistic ownership rules of the dark ages. In a free society, ideas must remain the 'freest' of all commodities. by martinweiss (41 articles, 6 quicklinks, 13 diaries, 503 comments [3 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Wednesday, Aug 15, 2007 at 12:27:08 PM (0+)
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Copyright for Kids
Maybe this is simple enough for Progress Ohio to understand (and yes, I will be using this in my post tonight): http://www.loc.gov/teachers/copyrightmystery And this site does a good job of explaining the basics: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html by peacechicken (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 11 comments) on Wednesday, Aug 15, 2007 at 1:56:23 PM (0+)
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