Myself included.
We see some information on another person's website, which we wish to urgently share with other MB members.
We cannot be bothered or do not have enough time for paraphrasing or expressing the information in our own words (which is what we should be doing), and a simple copy and paste is so convenient.
The problem with doing this is that the process can easily become addictive, and involve you copying huge unedited blocks of information which are most likely subject to copyright laws (both the author's, as well as those of the country where the server hosting that particular web page is located).
Of course it is usually OK just to copy the few what you think are the most important lines of the text into a blank posting (absolute maximum of 200 words, preferably much less), then give credit to the original author (OA) by naming him or her at the end.
Since articles are being continually copied from one website to another (either legally or illegally) it may be difficult for you to trace the item back to its OA. In this case the name of the person who is publishing it on the site which you are copying it from should be acceptable. Or sometimes if you cannot find a name associated with the writing, then either put the author's name down as anonymous or just unknown.
Since general members are very restricted in what links to external websites are allowed to be posted on MB, resist the temptation to do so if at all possible.
Note that source: XYZ.com or credits: XYZ.com are NOT links.
Armed with that information and the small amount of text which you have copied word for word from the website in question, anyone who is interested enough to do further research on what you have copied can find it easily using an internet search engine. Any responsibility for what the other member does with the information from now on rests entirely with them, and not with you.
Finally please remember that the above is only meant as a general set of guidelines to what I believe might be acceptable most of the time under the copyright laws which apply to that specific intellectual property. Be sure to spend some time on the source website reading their copyright rules. What I am recommending may not always be enough to save you from legal action, if anyone complains about what you have copied without written permission first being obtained from the OA .
Not only could you come out on the wrong side of the law, but you could also be banned from Mystic Board for spamming.
Thank you for reading this.Whenever you are in any doubt as to whether or not you may be quite innocently placing yourself in danger of being prosecuted for infringement of another person's copyright, either do not do it at all or send me a brief private message beforehand, explaining what you are planning to do. It is generally easier for your admin to prevent any damage your actions might cause by being fully informed before the deed is done, than for one of us to repair the damage on your behalf, once it has been done (and cannot be easily reversed).
Brian (This posting's OA)
