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Archiver > Listowners > 1998-07 > 0899388115


From: "Joanna M. Ashmun" <>
Subject: Re: Copyrighted articles on list!!!
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 98 07:01:55 -0700


It's okay to copy or transcribe someone else's original written
composition for your own information, but you don't have the right to
distribute that copy or transcription without the author's permission.
In principle, if you want to share, say, a magazine article with a
friend, you're supposed to buy another issue of the magazine to give to
your friend, not photocopy the article, since the rights of distribution
have been transferred by the author to a publisher. Most people don't
buy more copies to give to their friends and they don't get in trouble
for not doing it, not because it doesn't violate copyright but rather
because private communications are protected in other ways.

The basic idea is that, when people want to express or explain something
in writing, they should compose something original. If you want to use
somebody else's words because the way that other person said something is
special or important in some way, then that other person's written
expression is exactly what copyright protects. In general, fair use
covers the kind of short quotations used in book reviews and news or
research articles, and usually these don't exceed 300 words all together
or 150 words in a chunk (like from one paragraph). If you want to copy
or transcribe someone else's work because you don't want to go to the
work of writing something in your own words or because you want to save
someone else the expense of getting their own copy, then what you're
doing is probably NOT fair use. Giving attribution for written work
without having permission to use it essentially just gives notice that
you know whose copyright you are infringing.

Joanna Ashmun

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Joanna M. Ashmun <>
<http://www.halcyon.com/jmashmun/index.html>;
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