Permission on the Web

[Suzanne Pyle <Crow101156 -at- AOL -dot- COM>]

Thanks so much for all your replies regarding permission to use material on
the
Web.  The concensus appears to indicate that we should treat text and
graphics
on the internet as we would with any material that is copyright.  The whole
idea
of copyright and the Web is evolving and many off shoot discussions have come
about as a result of this inquiry.  I'm forwarding along to you some of that
discussion which I think we can all benefit from.

- Suzanne
---------------------
Forwarded message:
From:   gallama -at- lookout -dot- ecte -dot- uswc -dot- uswest -dot- com (George Allaman)
To:     srm -at- c2 -dot- org (Richard Mateosian)
CC:     Crow101156 -at- AOL -dot- COM (Suzanne Pyle)
Date: 96-01-11 12:27:27 EST

Richard -

Thanks for this. I would like you to expound further, though, if you would.

It surprises me that EVERYTHING on the web cannot be copied or reused.  Does
this mean that if I draw a stick figure in my home page and don't copyright
it or put a copyright symbol on it (I create it), and later I see someone
using the exact same one on their home page, I could sue? At my previous
company, it was standard practice to cruise the web for cool graphics and
ideas to copy directly into the web pages we were creating, although they
were for internal use only. Was this dangerous?

Do you consider that one should always ask permission to create a link to
another's web page? This strikes me as unduly restrictive. If you have a
page out there, why would you care if somebody creates a link to it? It's
more exposure, which is presumably why you created the page in the first
place. Is this an issue of manners or rights?

I'm not arguing with you - I just sense that you know something I don't,
and I want it!! I suspect others on the list would be interested, too, so
I encourage you to post your response.

Thanks,

   |George Allaman               |                          |
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On Wed, 10 Jan 1996, Richard Mateosian wrote:

> >If I find artwork or material at a site that I would like to use in my
> >own material, do I have access to it?  Does the "fair use" provision
> >apply here?

> It's protected by copyright. The fair use doctrine applies to all copyright
> matters.


> >Is it legal to just borrow what I find on the Web?

> If you mean republish without permission, the answer is no.


> >And if you do find a site that is has the copyright sticker on it,
> >what then applies?

> The same law. Original work is fully protected with or without the
"sticker"
> but it's harder to collect damages.

> You can always put a link at your site pointing to the material you like.
> Doing this without permission, however, invites responses from mild
> annoyance to outright retalliation.  ...RM

> Richard Mateosian        http://www.c2.org/~srm/   President, Berkeley STC
> Freelance Technical Writer     srm -at- c2 -dot- org        Review Editor, IEEE Micro