Article links and copyrights

Copying an entire article without permission from the publisher is copyright violation, even if the author says he doesn't care.

"Fair use" rules are muddy, but in the context of this forum it generally allows you to use a few lines. Only if you were dissecting the piece point by point could you possibly claim fair use in pasting the entire text here.

A link to the full article along with the opening or most informative paragraph is enough for people to decide if they want to read further and will save this place from future threats.

Same goes for pictures, especially those owned by news services and graphics houses.

The German law is UrheberrechtG and I think the relevant sections are UrhebG § 41a., § 44. (1) & (2), and § 57. (3). You can slog through the whole thing here as a PDF.

woof.

Thanks BadDoggie.

Yes folks, he's right. Just to confirm, there are four points to remember:

1) Quote - Always wrap your copied text with the quote button.

2) Source - Always place a hyperlink to your source above the quoted text.

3) 100 words - Don't copy and paste the entire article. Only the first 100 words max.

4) Images - Don't copy an image unless it is public domain or you have copyright permission.

See also further information about cooking recipes and copyright.

Thanks.

and btw -- if you see an entire article that's been posted from somewhere else, or a picture that's likely to be copyright-sensitive (refer to BadDoggie's post for the definitions here) -- do feel free to use the...

"!Report" button



...to report it to the entire moderating team. Don't just pm your favorite moderator, as that one may be on vacation (yes it happens).

You'll see notices pop up in threads sometimes: "Copyright violations removed by admin". That's where they come from. Man I wish the software would take care of stuff like this automatically, but it doesn't...

Gen just mentioned on another thread that we cannot post a copyright image here.

But surely google with its "image" feature is doing exactly the same thing all day every day?

Not at all. Part of it is intent and part of it is method. Google doesn't store the images. Look at the source code and you'll see that every image search result is actually a direct link to that picture on a dynamically created page.

Google is a search engine (some special protections due to the nature of searching) and only brings up what the user asked for in a particular search, and that from the site directly, adding back-end scripting to limit the display of any thumbmail to about 130px vertically or 15px horizontally.

Google also respects copyright holders' wishes and accepts the robots.txt file for both the cache and images. Furthermore, any site can block Google even previewing images by setting the Web server to block external refrering URLs.

You could use the IMG tag so that the TT rendered page pulls the picture directly from the originating site (therefore, TT isn't hosting is nor using it), but this has three main drawbacks:

1) Many people set their browsers to block third-party images for security reasons since they're often used for tracking, spying, marketing and such.

2) The owner can block read access to the site calling the picture.

3) The owner could substitute the pic you meant with another simply by changing the name of the original file and then adding a disgusting pic using the original file name. This is a good method to stop ePay deadbeats and scammers who are "stealing" pictures and using them as their own.

Here is an example:

[img]http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/IMAGES/SMALL/GPN-2000-000044.jpg[/img]
Apollo 4 launch (public domain photo)

If you look at the source code, you'll see that the image isn't http:// www.toytowngermany.com/forum/uploads/post-{some_number}_name.jpg but rather is linked directly to http:// grin.hq.nasa.gov/IMAGES/SMALL/GPN-2000-000044.jpg -- a huge difference in copyright and IP law.

Again, the problem with this method is that some people won't see it (including me, at least in FireFerret) and also that NASA could block outside referrers (reference from anything but a *.nasa.gov domain) and they can change the picture at will -- this link will show whatever the Webmaster names GPN-2000-000044.jpg and stores in the IMAGES/SMALL/ directory on the grin.hq.nasa.gov server.

In summary: The creators of the picture (artists, photographers) or their assignees (whoever they explicitly gave rights to) hold copyright. You may be able to view the pictures but you can't copy them or use them without permission from the owner. This is why Johnny English can post photos of his underwear models (provided the basic contract allows for any use or at least for any marketing use and JE gets away with claiming that posting the pix on TT is marketing) but can't post pix of heroin-chic Kate Moss wannabes he found on some site.

All clear? If not, I can try to explain further, but I'm pretty busy Monday.

woof.