TruemorsHi everyone,
I am enjoying this experience tremendously, as I am sure all the newbie editors are as well. I have noticed that there are many entries by members where either the entire text (or nearly) of a story appears to have been highlighted, with little or no comment, and other stories in which only a snippet has been highlighted- but it is an interesting snippet, a good story- but without comment by the NP member. Following the links or looking for the member's blog lets me know that these people can really write well, but are not doing it for the NP pieces.
Also there is the matter of people quoting from their own blogs and sites. I think they might be caught in a dilemma, at least those who are not plugging a product or spamming. The authors don't want to give NP an exclusive, and don't know how else to get attention for their original work. Even if the stories are based on some others, many of these self-referential entries link to good material. Thoughts?
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at 07:34 on January 16th, 2008
Exactly.
I cringe when I see entire articles copied and pasted in, even if a source is tossed in. And doing it in segments doesn't change anything--if it comes from a site that clearly posts its usage and copyright rules, and you violate those statements, then it's just plain not right.
Ethics: simple.
at 14:19 on January 16th, 2008
Hi guys,
I have to agree and it happens more often than not on Now Public. Makes me want to throw it all in when I know how much time I spend researching and writing up an original article. I'm sure that's the same for many of you here too.
I can't though - writing is an addiction for me. ;)
~ Swan
at 16:47 on January 16th, 2008
I do not have a lot of time to write original pieces, that is why I provide opinion and commentary, but then only after research or from personal experience in the field.
at 09:07 on June 24th, 2008
In reply to #2 killfile at 14:03 on February 2nd, 2007
Agreed that republishing an entire article would be bad. Fair Use generally allows for LIMITED reproduction (IE, a sound byte or two from a larger article), not for a verbatim recopy of the entire article. I don't know if there's any way of figuring out from quotes and the links back to the source material what percentage of an article has been recopied. Probably not, especially on articles broken up over several pages as some news sites to.
But, there should probably be something in the FAQs section reiterating some of the more legalistic bits of copyright laws, etc. (If there's not already...) IE, when it's okay to copy longer texts (if you're the owner or have asked express permission, or are somehow reviewing the article / offering opinions on it and adding much of your own interpretive text between small snippets of the other's text?) and when it's not (you're not the owner and you copy a majority of the article without permission).
Just a thought,
~Michael Gmirkin