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In article <4r3afv$png@newsbf02.news.aol.com>
fitchdons@aol.com "FitchDonS" wrote:
>Note that the copyright bit mentioned above actually applies,
>also, to everything Posted to Usenet NewsGroups. There
>is obviously a sort of common understanding that material posted
>here may be freely quoted (in the Group to which it was originally
>Posted), with proper attribution, but this appears to have no
>legal standing, or is not yet embodied in Case Law.
Not true. You missed the bit about excerpts "for discussion or review",
without which it would be impossible to review books in copyright. The
copyright law also specifies how much of the original can be used for
this, but I don't think that has ever been applied to Usenet or email
(but it might provide a weapon against the idiots who quote a whole post
including the signature and add "me too").
However, using graphics taken from book covers and TV / film stills on
the net is indeed illegal, and has been prosecuted in the past
successfully, as have people quoting chunks of books in files on the
net.
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| chris@keris.demon.co.uk | FIAWOL (Filking Is A Way Of Life) |
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