Copyright law and boards.ie

later12

Hi everyone.

I have a query in relation to copying and pasting articles here on boards.

In all forums I post in, users are, naturally, encouraged to reference articles to back up our claims or opinions. In some cases, I myself would copy onto boards.ie an article which might have subscriber-only access to its content (e.g. the FT or another restricted access journal) in order to share the story.

So my question is really just if someone might give a broad rundown of what is OK under copyright and what is not

(a) I presume that pasting articles en masse is not ok, but how much is too much?
(b) What about copying and pasting from restricted access journals?

Thanks in advance.

BrianD

A real hot-potatoe. The NNI or whatever they call themselves are like NAZIs when it comes to this type of thing. I used to subscribe to a news clippings service - they wanted money for just looking at it. If you printed it, more money, if somebody else looked at it more money, save it on a computer more money. The notion of a fair fee for reasonable use seemed to elude these people and, in my view, were giving copyright enforcement a bad name.

I suspect that there is issues in copying and pasting articles from newspaper sites (even if they aren't walled). Perhaps boards already have some sort of a licence to cover this. I would always try and attribute it and give a link back to the article. I would speculate that copying and pasting articles from behind a pay wall is a no no.

Darragh

Our advice on this would be very simple

Only quote a couple of lines and ALWAYS link to your source. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS.

The problem arises when people copy and paste entire articles into threads without citing where it's from or linking. Not only is that open to suggestions of - to say the least - disregard for copyright, it's also poor etiquette.

Don't copy and paste from behind paywalls either - at least not entire articles.

This is a tricky one and just be sensible about what you do. Remember, it's not Boards.ie breaching copyright, it's you by putting it up on site...

Corsendonk

What about quoting books no longer in copyright? I quoted books from the 1800s in threads before in large extracts and was pulled up even do I pointed out that the books were no longer under copyright. But I hadn't that issue in the history forum. The understanding of copyright between certain forums seems to be gray.

later12

Ok, thanks for that.

Just one more question on a somewhat related topic; on the issue of posting a private communication, what is a acceptable?

For example, following on from some online discussion, I have sometimes sought out private communication with an organisation or a corporation in order that they might address specific queries. I assume that in relaying these responses on a discussion board, it is always necessary to ask the corresponding party for permission to publish the communication online?
And is it so even in cases whereby the answer is from a public body and the individual's name is not quoted?

I have seen a few cases of communications with banks and other bodies being published up here on boards, so again just wondering what the correct procedure is there.

coylemj

later10 wrote: »

Ok, thanks for that.

Just one more question on a somewhat related topic; on the issue of posting a private communication, what is a acceptable?

For example, following on from some online discussion, I have sometimes sought out private communication with an organisation or a corporation in order that they might address specific queries. I assume that in relaying these responses on a discussion board, it is always necessary to ask the corresponding party for permission to publish the communication online?
And is it so even in cases whereby the answer is from a public body and the individual's name is not quoted?

I have seen a few cases of communications with banks and other bodies being published up here on boards, so again just wondering what the correct procedure is there.

Unless you're publishing personal information without the person's consent there is no issue.

If you ask a public body a question and the answer is applicable to the general population then you don't need their permission to publish their answer.

You've probably seen e-mails from people who work for large companies which have as a footer a statement that the e-mail is intended for the recipient only and may not be published or forwarded without permission, I'd be wary about publishing that type of communication since there is an explicit embargo on publication.