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When we last left our absentee producer, she was fending off a Cease-And-Desist type of letter from Time, Inc. via the host for The Rules bulletin board. What will she do?!? As you might imagine, Jennifer was ready to take all the entries down. Harry, on the other hand, found the concept hilarious that Time owned all the bulletin board postings, not the writers. Once he got a copy of liatris' note to me, our favorite local pit bull was ready to take 'em on. As for me, well, at first I thought we were in the wrong. However, I was struck by an irony: the way the bulletin board members found out about Jennifer's entries was that someone posted one of Jennifer's entries pretty much in its entirety. Since each entry page here has a copyright statement at the bottom of the page stating that the writer owns the copyright, they had violated Jennifer's copyright. So I was ready to delete Jennifer's entries in return for them deleting the bulletin board post with her entry. Then I did some research. I have a couple of books on legal issues with graphic design. Naturally, copyright is one of the main topics. So I read about copyright. And fair use. And what is covered under fair use. Such as criticism (movie reviews, for example). And parody. And I started thinking...maybe we're not so wrong after all. So. Wayne and I put on our Lawyeresque thinking caps and pounded out this gem. After checking it out with Harry and Jennifer, we sent it to TR Host and posted it on The Rules bulletin board: So there.Dear TR Host: We received your request to remove several articles posted on our reader board, and have taken your requests into consideration. You note that this article violates the copyright of Time, Inc. as noted at http://www.pathfinder.com/help/hbb/rulesroad.html. After reviewing copyright law, we feel that the March 2000 articles written by Ms. Jennifer Rutherford falls clearly within the bounds of "fair use" as it pertains to commentary, criticism and news reporting. The bulk of her article consists of original commentary and literary criticism of the copyrighted works in question. Therefore, it is clear that her use of the material in question is within the realm of "fair use" and not an infringement of Time's copyright. Out of respect for your site, however, we will add an additional byline credit to Ms. Rutherford's articles to clarify the respective copyrights: "Portions of the article above, quoted for literary review and critical analysis purposes, are copyright Time, Inc. Information about The Rules and original works may be found at the website http://www.therulesbook.com./" We would like to point out, however, that post #2468 on the Headbanger's Board at your site violates Ms. Rutherford's copyright by reproducing the work in its entirety without permission or commentary. As we are certain that it is not the intent of Time, Inc., the host of The Rules board, or the participants on that board to engage in copyright violations themselves (as per Time, Inc's stated policy), we respectfully request that post #2468 be removed or revised so that it falls within the realm of fair use. Sincerely, The Elgonquin Staff After that, the hubbub died down quickly. A few minor remarks on their board, I added the comments I promised, they retired the thread where Jennifer's post was quoted (thus sort of complying with my request). Their BBS user interface sucks, btw. Thank you, Harry, for using better software than that! All's well that ends well, as some guy named Will used to say. And if someone named liatris pops by the Round Table, thank her. Without her, we might have given in and taken down Jennifer's posts without a quarrel--and without a reason. Cheryl |
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