Here are the forum rules. Please check them from time to time as the rules may be updated.
1. No name calling. We may never agree with each other but we are adults and should act like it. Maybe in the end we can learn something from each other.
2. Respect the work of others. If you find a person has made a mistake in his/her post please use constructive criticism.
3. Plagiarism. One word and on this site it is a crime. If you copy someones work and claim it as your own you will be banned immediately.
4. Use of references is a BIG plus and helps build your credibility. Also giving credit to the original author shows them that you respect the work they do.
5. Copying material from other sites is allowed just as it is with any research program. However it is important that you provide a reference to the original source. If you are posting a news article from another site please be sure to include a link to the original story as well as the name of the news source such as Associated Press, NBC, etc. For the sake of staying within the normal guidelines for writing articles and research papers please quote only a paragraph or two from the original story. Doing this will keep your story within the acceptable use guidelines of intellectual property laws.
6. Politics. Ok. Now get that word out of your vocabulary. Politics and science do not belong in bed together. Just stick to the facts and leave the politics to the governments of the world.
7. Posting of information with the intent to mislead or posting of material that is known to be an outright lie will result in a deletion of the material from this site. Second offense will result in a suspension. Third offense will result in a ban.
8. Participating in this forum is a privilege and not a right. While we will not interfere with the free exchange of ideas we do reserve the right to suspend access to anyone at anytime for any reason.
Sorry for the need to post rules. This is a community designed to encourage free thinking and to encourage people to share their ideas. Please enjoy.
Rule #5 updated. The change references the use of a single paragraph or two in a quote to keep an article within the acceptable use clauses of the intellectual property laws.
Bump on this. Keep it legal. Only a couple of paragraphs can be quoted from a story. I think 3 is the actual legal limit. I don't believe this applies to government documents and advisories since they are covered in the freedom of information act.
I think it is no more than 25% of the total article that can be quoted.The rest of the article must be accessed by the link.
But forums such as this one post their own rules on what is acceptable.Here it is 2 or maybe 3 paragraphs as the limit.
I can abide by that.
Is the rule 25% maximum? When I took English Comp in college we were told to limit it to about 2 to 3 paragraphs. I had seen a few sites where they had acceptable use provisions for their content and they had roughly the same requirement.
Its always best to limit the quote to the most important part of the source as it applies to your post. If a couple of sentences tells the story there is no reason to copy 2 or 3 paragraphs. It makes for better writing. Plus it also helps drive traffic to the site the quote came from which is only fair.
| Quoting Indy - posted on 8/3/2008 at 15:14 |
Is the rule 25% maximum? When I took English Comp in college we were told to limit it to about 2 to 3 paragraphs. I had seen a few sites where they had acceptable use provisions for their content and they had roughly the same requirement. Its always best to limit the quote to the most important part of the source as it applies to your post. If a couple of sentences tells the story there is no reason to copy 2 or 3 paragraphs. It makes for better writing. Plus it also helps drive traffic to the site the quote came from which is only fair. |
Hello again.
I finally cameback to post some information about how much of an article can be excerpted.It appears that the 25% excerpt guideline is not a real rule.It was that way at a forum that has that as their forum rule.
Here are some information that should interest you.From Wikipedia.
Selected Excerpt:
Common misunderstandings
Fair use is commonly misunderstood because of its deliberate ambiguity. Here are some of the more common misunderstandings with explanations of why they are wrong:
Any use that seems fair is fair use. In the law, the term "fair use" has a specific meaning that only partly overlaps the plain-English meaning of the words. While judges have much leeway in deciding how to apply fair use guidelines, not every use that is commonly considered "fair" counts as fair use under the law.
Fair use interpretations, once made, are static forever. Fair use is decided on a case by case basis, on the entirety of circumstances. The same act done by different means or for a different purpose can gain or lose fair use status. Even repeating an identical act at a different point in time can make a difference due to changing social, technological, or other surrounding circumstances.
If it's not fair use, it's copyright infringement. Fair use is only one of many limitations, exceptions, and defenses to copyright infringement. For instance, the Audio Home Recording Act establishes that it is legal in some circumstances to make copies of audio recordings for non-commercial personal use.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use
Here is another link.This one has explanations about how we can handle copyrighted written material.
Read #4 since this really pertains to internet forums and their excerpt rules.
From Brad Templetons homepage.
10 Big Myths about copyright explained
An attempt to answer common myths about copyright seen on the net and cover issues related to copyright and USENET/Internet publication.
- by Brad Templeton
EXCERPT:
Note that this is an essay about copyright myths. It assumes you know at least what copyright is -- basically the legal exclusive right of the author of a creative work to control the copying of that work. If you didn't know that, check out my own brief introduction to copyright for more information. Feel free to link to this document, no need to ask me. Really, NO need to ask.
1) "If it doesn't have a copyright notice, it's not copyrighted."
This was true in the past, but today almost all major nations follow the Berne copyright convention. For example, in the USA, almost everything created privately and originally after April 1, 1989 is copyrighted and protected whether it has a notice or not. The default you should assume for other people's works is that they are copyrighted and may not be copied unless you know otherwise. There are some old works that lost protection without notice, but frankly you should not risk it unless you know for sure.
It is true that a notice strengthens the protection, by warning people, and by allowing one to get more and different damages, but it is not necessary. If it looks copyrighted, you should assume it is. This applies to pictures, too. You may not scan pictures from magazines and post them to the net, and if you come upon something unknown, you shouldn't post that either.
The correct form for a notice is:
"Copyright [dates] by [author/owner]"
You can use C in a circle © instead of "Copyright" but "(C)" has never been given legal force. The phrase "All Rights Reserved" used to be required in some nations but is now not legally needed most places. In some countries it may help preserve some of the "moral rights."
http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html