[mrsD]

First..I have found that links to newspapers, die very quickly. For example in our Health News forum, some links are gone after 30 days.

In those cases where there is important data, I've copied the whole article with a link, and including author. I learned this the hard way when I lost a very good
article on Vit C and cancer... I should have copied that one. It is totally gone now and I can't retrieve it.

Secondly--Some places have a "send email to a friend" on the page. Doesn't this mean they allow some copying? For example, I have a membership to ScienceNews, and some articles are not available to the general public.
I rarely, but have copied them here, with citation of course, when I have extremely good data to share. They say right on them--email to a friend.
Isn't that sort of what we are doing...here..sharing with a "friend"?

I always give the author and location of anything I quote. I thought the copyright restrictions applied to making money using others words without permission.

I will say I emailed AAFP (Association of American Family Physicians) for permission to use a picture they have in one of their website monographs.
They give the address to email them. And they never answered me...EVER
So I used it anyway on another board. So if they really cared you'd think I'd get a yes or no! sheeesh.

I tend to not post entire works by others here. That really just wastes bandwidth, and just seems impolite to me. If I find something, then the link is good enough for me. (except where they have very short temporary lives).

[Jomar]

The "send to a friend" email option - might just send a link back to the original page.

I've never sent one to myself to check that, and each site may do those differently also.

[DocJohn]

It's complicated, and while I'm not a lawyer, I'll try and explain what I've learned over the years in dealing with this issue online...

1. You're welcomed to make a copy of any article you find online and save a copy to your computer for your own personal use. In fact, every time you visit a webpage, a copy is already being automatically made in your Web browser's cache. So if you read a newspaper article are are afraid it will "disappear" (it's usually moved into a pay-only archive), that's a good way to keep a copy for your own personal use.

2. Emailing a single copy of an article to a single person is something that is permissible under copyright laws.

These kinds of two uses above are covered under a legal doctrine called "Fair Use." Fair Use basically says you may make copies of copyrighted material for your own personal use or research. Emailing to a single friend (or 3 or 4 friends) is an extension of this kind of use that some websites allow because they hope it will drive more traffic back to their website someday. That means you're also allowed to share an article via PM here to a few friends.

However, when we post something here to NeuroTalk on the forums, we're no longer making a copy just for our own use or sharing it with a single friend. We're making it available to everybody on the Internet and it's no longer "personal use" (and may or may not be covered by the Fair Use doctrine).

If you post a copyrighted work here for "educational or research purposes," it may be allowed under Fair Use. But we'd greatly prefer that whenever possible, you simply link to where you found the article online, because that is completely allowed and won't ever get us into trouble (whereas posting copyrighted works here may).

Thanks,
DocJohn

PS - If you want to learn more about copyright in a relatively easy-to-understand format, I like this page:

http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html

[Alffe]

I am so relieved to read that you think it's complicated...I thought I was just stupid!

[glenntaj]

--inasmuch as the Internet is a relatively new medium and most of the legal cases that wil one day decide these gray areas have not even been joined yet.

Dr. John's guide is as current as any, and he acknowledges that there may be broad questions as to whether full copying is permitted depending on the number of people involved--the definition of "personal use" is ambiguous on-line--and whether or not any profit may be involved. Where this gets hazy is in situations, say, where an article is copied to a nono-profit site, but that site may be partially supported by advertising, and driving more eyeballs to it "benefits" the advertisers and/or the site (which may get a higher rate from the advertisers based on views) . . .

For the meantime, since I recognize Mrs. D's dilemma, I just tend to post links, with a citation in the post IF I include any text at all in the post from the link, and I do "favorite" really relevant things on my computer AND often make a copy to my hard drive if I suspect it's from a site where the link will expire. If the link does expire and I have to send it to someplace else, it goes with a full citation.

[Alffe]

May I quote you on that? *grin

[mollymcn]

It's complicated, and while I'm not a lawyer, I'll try and explain what I've learned over the years in dealing with this issue online...

If you post a copyrighted work here for "educational or research purposes," it may be allowed under Fair Use. But we'd greatly prefer that whenever possible, you simply link to where you found the article online, because that is completely allowed and won't ever get us into trouble (whereas posting copyrighted works here may).

Thanks,
DocJohn

Hmm - I AM a copyright lawyer, and also a former health law professor. I am a big advocate of disseminating medical information to patients, and internet boards are the primary way of doing so because doctors are no longer the first source of information about health and illness.(sorry Doc!) What you said about #1 and #2 is exactly right ... HOWEVER in regards to your paragraph about posting copyrighted works While I would not want to get Neurotalk "in trouble," I would argue vigorously that attaching a PDF article (as I just did in the RSD community) falls under Fair Use because it is purely for educational use for sick people in a nonprofit noncommercial setting .

Hello,

I fully agree with the warning about respecting copyright, which is a matter of law. Another important issue is plagiarism which is an ethical matter. I have not observed any problem with either of these on this forum.

If you want to find out what happened to another forum, where blatant wholesale copyright theft and plagiarism was allowed, you are invited to visit my web site; URL at end of this message.

Select the link in the orange banner at the top of The B12 Betrayal Home Page, then select the Copyright Theft or Plagiarism in the new menu on the left.

Paul