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Date Posted: 00:24:00 09/15/00 Fri
Author: VoyForums Staff
Subject: Re: Question on legality
In reply to: ron 's message, "Question on legality" on 16:12:30 09/14/00 Thu

> Do you know if it is legal to copy/paste a post at a
> public board to another board without the permission
> of the author?
> Is the post considered in the public domain?
> ron

In general, creative writings may be considered copywritten even without an explicit copywrite notice. Simply providing the work available for public viewing does not make it public domain. Infringement is sometimes invalidated by the defense of "fair use", which is determined by the purpose and character of the use (of the copied material), the nature of the original work, amount and similarity of material copied, and how much commercial effect it has.

Copyright law largely focusses on the commercial aspect, though, both in the commercial impact of the original work's destination market as well as the market of the final work, which I will discuss later. Copying material for commercial use is inevitably deemed unfair use, but may be excused with enough in the favor of the copier.

Before I continue, I must state that neither I, nor Voyager Info-Systems can or will be considered your legal advisor, nor do I or Voyager Info-Systems guarantee the validity of the information I'm stating here. If you wish to perform an action you think may be copyright infringement, I recommend you research copyright law further or consult a legal advisor.

Now, if someone posts a message on a message board, it is usually understood that post may be replied to, quoted, and even indexed in search engines; therefore, it would, to me, and quite possibly to courts, be considered irrational for the original author to believe their post is highly protected. However, it is important, then, to consider "fair use". If their post is an original creative work, like a poem or story, then duplicating the work may potentially affect the destination commercial market.

In court cases, even copyrighted use affecting a completely different market, like one case I just read regarding a historical original work, and some of the factual and creative information duplicated in a romance novel, the usage of the copied material would not affect the market of the original work in any significant fashion.

Because of all this, I think that it a poster should expect their post to be replied to and possibly quoted on the same site they posted their message on; however, copying it to another message board or message site may be raising the questionability. If you think the original author may be upset at your doing so, perhaps you shouldn't do it. Again, research this and make the decision yourself; I can find many reasons that an author would be considered silly, including the freely-available text to other sites, to search engines, to sites which process website text, etc.

Additionally, if a poster truely is worried about their content, they could easily state a copyright notice. Also, it's worth mentioning that, apparently, to proceed with an actual infringement case, it is often necessary to register the copyright with the Copyright Office.

I hope this helps you understand copyright law a bit more; I don't know if it provides anything strict for you to follow, and that's probably better. :)

Sincerely,
VoyForums Staff


Bibliography:
Metzger, Mallor, Barnes, Bowers, Phillips, Langvardt,. Business Law and the Regulatory Environment. (Richard D. Irwin, Inc., 1995)


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