Large Scale Central

Links, image, etc, from other sites

General Discussion
#1

Hi folks
Ive been asked about this in a couple emails lately, so I figure thats enough to warrant a post.

I’ve been asked, and told, various things about when someone links to an article at another site, or embeds an image from somewhere else (See the various Dilbert cartoons). Some people have emailed me saying “I didnt know you had permission to do this” kind of emails. This is a legal fuzzy area, but there have been many precidents set.

Essentially, a forum owner has to either:

  1. Monitor every post constantly on his site, and remove any copyrightable material. Period. This is the “Its my forum, and I decide what goes on it” route. Its also the most work intensive, and a legal slippery-slope.

  2. Not monitor anything, and only respond to direct requests from the copyright owner him/herself. This is the “Anyone can post here, just try and keep it on topic” route, and the one Ive taken.

In the case of 1, this isnt what I want to do. I dont moderate my forums, and I try and keep the conversations sane (well, mostly). If I started to delete posts, then Id have to start moderating ALL my formus ALL the time.

In the case of 2, thats the path Ive chosen here. Now, are the Dilbert cartoons copyrighted? Yep. Have I published them as my own work? No. What about when someone embeds a picture from Railpub, or another photo site? Yep, those are copyrighted, too. But, Im not going to remove them because once I start, then I have to ALWAYS do it. Ill only do it when the owner requests it, and then I’ll make a note as to why it was taken down.

So, in a nutshell, those are the rules, and the legal ramifications, of what forum moderation holds for a forum owner. You can email me to discuss this further, if you wish.

Now, back to trains.

#2

I was wondering when someone was going to comment on the Dilbert posts. The problem you may have is that you have now posted that you know they are there. That may be enough to get sued by some rabid lawyer (my apologies to lawyers, I know not all of them are rabid!).

While I greatly enjoy those cartoons, since they are very close to the heart (I come from an engineering background where many of these situations ACTUALLY happened); I would strongly encourage forum members not to post high-profile copyrighted stuff, we might lose the forum during some legal fracas.

Not only can the person posting this be sued, but so can the forum owner and moderators.

Regards, Greg

#3

As Bob says, this is a fuzzy legal area.

Here’s my personal take and the rules I follow regarding copyrighted material…

If I save such material to my local disk, then upload it to either in a freight shed or some other web space, then include it in a post - that to me is a clear violation of copyright. I have taken the copyrighted material and posted it elsewhere.

If, on the other hand, I post an embedded link to the copyrighted source material at it’s original location I do not feel this infringes on the copyright. The source material was not taken and/or re-published. It remains published in it’s original location and my link is just a reference.

Copyright law and the Internet are really at odds. With printed material it’s very clear - you put it on a copier or a scanner and you are stealing it, plain and simple. But with Internet material, the function of the browser itself requires that the material be copied to your local machine’s hard disk in order to be displayed on your screen. Technically, in order to view anything on the Internet you must first make a local copy of it. Anyone with a little technical savvy (high school kid) can go browsing the ‘hidden’ Internet temporary files folder and grab any image that was viewed from the Internet since the last cache flush.

Bottom line is that everyone should use their own good judgment about embedded links. DO NOT upload copyrighted material to your LSC freight shed - that would really put our forum at risk.

JR

#4

If the Dilbert cartoon lives on another site, and you have link here that displays it, then is nt it down to the place where the cartoon resides ?

Tell me how this is different to looking over some ones shoulder on the train at a book they have bought, or looking thorugh a window at an open book left on a table. Are you in breach of copyright then?

After all you are still just looking at some one elses material that you dont own…

I would love to know.

#5

Bob

No problem, I understand your concerns and agree they are valid. So I won’t link anything in future messages.

Marvin
The Lone Railroader