COPYRIGHT LAW, ‘JUST GROUNDS’ and the moderators.

 

The question of copyright infringement is a constant source of concern for the moderators of ‘Just Grounds’. Of all laws, the laws of copyright are COMMON TO ALL within the Developed World.

 

Progressively, for a subscription, daily newspapers, especially the international Murdoch Press, are offering complete newspapers on the WWW.

 

They have realized this medium makes it easy for others to copy their material and re-post on the WWW and in other media. That is why they use and at times enforce their copyright.

 

The laws relating to international copyright are plain and unambiguous. The easiest reference is printed on the front pages of any book or magazine and is always somewhere in the pages of newspapers. Look it up for yourself.

 

Recently one of our moderators, Julene, had cause ON BEHALF OF ALL THE MODERATORS to raise this matter with P--- K--- who posted a direct copy from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on ‘Just Grounds’.

 

The following is what transpired: 

On 14/02/2011, at 7:40 PM, Julene wrote to the moderators:

 

Hi all,

Roger was concerned about a possible copyright infringement with P---- K----'s blog, which reproduces a Wall Street Journal article.

 

I sent P---- a PM this morning to ask him to look into WSJ's copyright.  

 

As a copyright issue, this case is blurry because the blog is, in essence, an advertisement for the high quality of the WSJ and its journalist.

 

We have two options:  1.  Do nothing (but take it down immediately if we get a warning from them); or 2. Do as Dale has previously suggested and only post 50% of the article, with a link to the rest.

 

Here is my PM to P----:

 

Hi P----,

 

I approved your blog (reposting the Wall Street Journal article) because it acknowledged the source, but other members of the management team have questioned whether it may still be a copyright infringement.  Do you have any knowledge of the copyright policy of the WSJ?  Can you find out?

Thanks,

Julene

Here is his reply:

 

You and your other members are a crock. For Christ's sake. The posts are on the internet. the WSJ has an online edition. The post is on several other sites. I might as well go and speak to the inmates of the Melbourne Zoo. You really gonna tell me that you don't post stuff that's not copyright cleared?  That would toss out virtually every blog post from Peter Crawford.

Good Day

I am now handing this matter over to Roger to pursue further as he/the rest of you feel necessary.

 

cheers and good night,

Julene

 

 

Last night I went to the WSJ web site. It was easy to find what I wanted. I suggest you read what follows after you have read the copyright law in the front of any book or magazine:

 

 

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The language used in the response that Julene received from P---- is not uncommon. That is not to say it is common as it is not — but it is not uncommon. My view is that P----’s language is unnecessarily abusive to Julene in particular, and to all the moderators in general.

 

There are always those who believe that everything on the WWW is free, and any restrictions placed by moderators are an attack on free speech (whatever that is). As you can see that is not the case.

 

If you want to re-print from the WSJ and any of the associated Murdoch Press publications you have to get permission from the WSJ, and you have to pay, if you don’t, you infringe their copyright. In reality this applies to all media publications on the WWW, and to any item marked © or copyright.

 

Should legal action be taken against ‘Just Grounds’ for infringement of copyright by the owner of an article or Intellectual Property (IP) in this case the WSJ, that action would not necessarily be taken against the person who posted but most certainly against the publisher, in this case the creator of ‘Just Grounds’, Rob Moore.

 

There would be and could be, no defence. Ignorance of the law is no excuse in law. We are now not ignorant of the law as it applies to copyright.

 

‘Just Grounds’ would not even try to defend if the WSJ moved against ‘Just Grounds’. The fate of ‘Just Grounds’ and maybe even Rob’s business would be at risk. That is a risk we cannot take. We could do no more than apologise, as we now do, for the post made by P---- K---.

 

It is our view that as the world moves more and more towards the electronic news media, the laws of copyright will be more actively policed.

 

We have already seen this with the illegal pirating of music and films. Some hefty fines have been imposed on those who have transgressed.

 

There are always those who want to believe that it is their right to copy for free IP owned by someone else. The new electronic media, as it replaces the print media, doesn’t work that way. The world doesn’t work that way. IP is just that. It is Intellectual Property, it has a value and an owner.

 

Regrettably there are always those who appear to enjoy attacking the moderators on ‘Just Grounds’. The attacks are often abusive, unfair and unnecessary. We accept we are considered by some to be an easy target.

 

As moderators we have a single objective and that is to keep ‘Just Grounds’ open and operating within the Terms of Use and within the law of the land and the international law of copyright.

 

Correspondence between members and moderators is usually conducted by private message. What appears on the site for all to see is usually the minimum to achieve the desired effect.

 

I have made the decision to print all of this correspondence because it is important that you all understand. I do it with the approval of all the moderators.

 

I ask you all to take note of all of the above. There are no problems with reproducing a few lines of an article and then posting the link to the item to which you refer.

 

Or, you can be creative and use the information and write your own article, recognizing, if the mood takes you, the source of your information.

 

The days of cut and paste of copyright material on ‘Just Grounds’ are finished. Anyone who transgresses will automatically and irrevocably have their membership cancelled.

 

Roger.