1.2.5 What should I know about copyright laws and the Usenet?
Description
This article is from the Nordic countries FAQ, by Antti Lahelma and Johan Olofsson, with numerous contributions by others.
1.2.5 What should I know about copyright laws and the Usenet?
Don't worry, you don't have to wade through law books, but there are a
few basic things it is good be aware of. First of all, all material
posted to Usenet, no matter how irrelevant or unimportant it may seem,
is automatically copyrighted unless it is unambiguously declared to be
public domain.
There does not have to be any kind of copyright notice, although a
notice does strenghten the protection a bit, nor does there have to be
financial interests involved. That the author posts it to the net
(equivalent to publishing it in a newspaper) does not mean that he or
she is giving it away for for anyone to use and exploit as they
please. Most countries of the world have signed the Berne convention
on which these principles are based, so there isn't very much
variation in the legistlation from one country to another.
There are, however, two doctrines that make possible e.g. quoting the
material in your own article, reposting it, and most of the other
standard Usenet procedures, without violating the poster's copyright:
"fair use" and "implied license". Because there are few precedents, it
isn't fully clear yet how these apply to Usenet, or if e.g. the
possible implied license of net articles extends beyond the net;
obviously, these laws weren't made with the internet in mind. But it
seems obvious that if for example you wish to publish something posted
to the net in printed form, you should contact the author first.
Posting someone's private e-mail without permission, on the other
hand, is not only immoral and a serious breach of netiquette, but is
also less likely to be acceptable as fair use, and can hardly be
considered as having implied license to publish. In addition to
violating copyright, it can also get you in legal trouble over issues
such as invasion of privacy and public defamamation. You can refer to
someone's mail to you and you can summarize the content, but you
should never post it without permission.
Of course, these things are highly theoretical (at least so far) and
you shouldn't expect to have to worry much about them. But it's a good
thing to be aware of, should you e.g. make an enemy out of some
notorious kook who could attempt to harass you with legal procedure.
Such things have been known to happen. For more information e.g. on
the fair use and implied license principles, read the Copyright FAQ by
Terry Carroll, (available at
<ftp://ftp.aimnet.com/pub/users/carroll/law/copyright/faq/>), or the
more compact FAQ called "10 Big Myths About Copyright Explained" by
Brad Templeton.
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