Avoiding Copyright Infringement

[NUance]

I've been meaning to post something like this for a while now. Since long before I became a mod. (Disclaimer: While I am a patent attorney, I would point out that patent law has very little to do with copyright law. I claim no special knowledge of copyright law, other than having taken a couple of IP law survey courses in law school. I am not acting as anyone's attorney in proposing these guidelines. Don't sue me bro!)

First, two questions:

Do we have any guidance on avoiding copyright infringement? Does HB comply with the Safe Harbor provision of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act?

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Avoiding Copyright Infringement

I'm guessing we actually do have some guidelines on avoiding copyright infringement someplace. But I'm not sure where they are. And I'm positive most members don't know where they are. lol. The good new is, most posters seem to abide by the Fair Use exclusion. This is probably due to common sense. Or perhaps just because it's the way we post things on HB. Anyway, Wiki provides a nice overview of the topic.

Wiki Article: LINK

Balancing Test

In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include--

• the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
• the nature of the copyrighted work;
• the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
• the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

There are not any hard and fast guidelines that will avoid problems in every potential situation. But I believe the following as guidelines for posting on HB (the bulleted text between double lines):

=====================================

• Do NOT post entire articles. Pick out couple of sentences of the content to post. You can safely post enough to provide the gist of the article and elicit conversation, comment and debate. If it's a reasonably long article--say 10 paragraphs or more--then it's probably okay to post a paragraph from the article.
• Post the Title of the article, the author, and the date--to the extent this information is provided.

• Post a link to the article.

• The copyright law for posting photos and other images is more of a gray area. It's generally okay to hotlink an image. If the author doesn't want it to be reposted, they will most likely take steps to avoid hotlinking.

=====================================



Safe Harbor provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act


The quote below is from a pretty good article on the topic.

Complying with the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act:

• Legal name of your business
• Alternate or assumed name of your business, if any
• Name of contact person
• Physical address of contact person
• Telephone and fax number of contact person
• Email address of contact person

LINK

Eric, Do we comply with these requirements? Have you had many copyright holders contact you in the past to request removal of their copyrighted content?

AR Husker: Any feedback/comments/edits? Other Mods?





Edit: "It's generally okay to hotlink an image."

 

[Eric the Red]

I've been meaning to post something like this for a while now. Since long before I became a mod. (Disclaimer: While I am a patent attorney, I would point out that patent law has very little to do with copyright law. I claim no special knowledge of copyright law, other than having taken a couple of IP law survey courses in law school. I am not acting as anyone's attorney in proposing these guidelines. Don't sue me bro!)

First, two questions:

Do we have any guidance on avoiding copyright infringement? Does HB comply with the Safe Harbor provision of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act?

==================================

Avoiding Copyright Infringement

I'm guessing we actually do have some guidelines on avoiding copyright infringement someplace. But I'm not sure where they are. And I'm positive most members don't know where they are. lol. The good new is, most posters seem to abide by the Fair Use exclusion. This is probably due to common sense. Or perhaps just because it's the way we post things on HB. Anyway, Wiki provides a nice overview of the topic.

Wiki Article: LINK

Balancing Test

In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include--

• the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
• the nature of the copyrighted work;
• the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
• the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

There are not any hard and fast guidelines that will avoid problems in every potential situation. But I believe the following as guidelines for posting on HB (the bulleted text between double lines):

=====================================

• Do NOT post entire articles. Pick out couple of sentences of the content to post. You can safely post enough to provide the gist of the article and elicit conversation, comment and debate. If it's a reasonably long article--say 10 paragraphs or more--then it's probably okay to post a paragraph from the article.
• Post the Title of the article, the author, and the date--to the extent this information is provided.

• Post a link to the article.

• The copyright law for posting photos and other images is more of a gray area. It's generally to hotlink an image. If the author doesn't want it to be reposted, they will most likely take steps to avoid hotlinking.

=====================================



Safe Harbor provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act


The quote below is from a pretty good article on the topic.

Complying with the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act:

• Legal name of your business
• Alternate or assumed name of your business, if any
• Name of contact person
• Physical address of contact person
• Telephone and fax number of contact person
• Email address of contact person

LINK

Eric, Do we comply with these requirements? Have you had many copyright holders contact you in the past to request removal of their copyrighted content?

AR Husker: Any feedback/comments/edits? Other Mods?

In the past, we have had some folks contacting us to take things down. We usually comply quickly without arguing. Rarely does it deal with football videos. We had a "model" contact us about taking her bikini pics down, a player's dad wanted us to take content down about his son, OWH contacted us to take down a cartoon, and UNL wanted content taken down about Carl Pelini.

 

[NUance]

In the past, we have had some folks contacting us to take things down. We usually comply quickly without arguing. Rarely does it deal with football videos. We had a "model" contact us about taking her bikini pics down, a player's dad wanted us to take content down about his son, OWH contacted us to take down a cartoon, and UNL wanted content taken down about Carl Pelini.

Actually, it's amazing HB has not had more problems with this, given the volume of content that's posted here. I think it's due to the good common sense by posters. I mean, when is the last time you saw anyone post an entire article? It doesn't happen too often. And the person generally avoids making the same mistake twice.

Maybe since it's not a big issue it would be best not to worry about it.

 

[AR Husker Fan]

We do have THIS PINNED TOPIC that has been around for a while. At various times - when it appears that folks are not following it - we will make it part of the top banner. Over the years, we've modified some posts and counseled some posters, and all of that seems to have done the trick.

Additionally, if you look for "copyright" in the General forum, I've posted a few times about what constitutes copyright. Same with trademark. Those were to assist the mods and admins. As Eric said, so long as someone politely requests removal, we generally honor the request. Easier than fighting it.

 

[Eric the Red]

In the past, we have had some folks contacting us to take things down. We usually comply quickly without arguing. Rarely does it deal with football videos. We had a "model" contact us about taking her bikini pics down, a player's dad wanted us to take content down about his son, OWH contacted us to take down a cartoon, and UNL wanted content taken down about Carl Pelini.

Actually, it's amazing HB has not had more problems with this, given the volume of content that's posted here. I think it's due to the good common sense by posters. I mean, when is the last time you saw anyone post an entire article? It doesn't happen too often. And the person generally avoids making the same mistake twice.

Maybe since it's not a big issue it would be best not to worry about it.

it's a good message. Most people "want to do right." There here to enjoy themselves and talk Husker. Remember this young stallion.