[Sigia-l] Site Critique Permissions

[Tal Herman]

This question has definitely come up before and has at least two correct but
very different answers, with many shades between the two.  I present both
answers in very simplified format.  There are very complex issues involved
here and great debate amongst those who make this area of the law their
business as to the bounds of copyright law both as a matter of law and
public policy.

Answer #1: You should always get permission.

Relying upon a vast simplification of US copyright law, website content and
design elements are all copyrighted by someone who may or may not be the
actual owner of the website.  No specific notice of copyright ownership or
claim is necessary for this to be the case.  Regardless of who owns the
copyright (the website owner or a third party whose work is displayed by
license on the website), you have no general right to use that content
and/or design for your own purposes without permission of the copyright
owner(s).  There are exceptions to this rule (see Answer #2 for one of
them), but for the most part, in order to be safe many people will advise
you to get permission to use any content or design elements in your own
work.

Answer #2

There is an affirmative defense to claims of copyright infringement called
'fair use.' According to this doctrine, you may make use of limited portions
of someone else's copyrighted materials for criticism and commentary
purposes.  Your situation may be a little muddied by the fact that you might
also be using these critiques for commercial purposes, but that isn't clear
from your e-mail.  The University of Texas system actually has a pretty good
summary of some of the major fair use issues on their website at
<http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/copypol2.htm> (check about
2/3 of the way down the page for the baseline fair use factors).  Many
people would urge you to rely upon the fair use doctrine and feel free to
use limited design elements or numbers of screenshots from websites without
requesting permission first.

I fall somewhere closer to the Answer #2 side of the equation personally,
but this is something that you will have to decide on your own or with the
help of a knowledgable copyright lawyer.

Tal

tal herman||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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-----Original Message-----
From: sigia-l-admin at asis.org [mailto:sigia-l-admin at asis.org]On Behalf Of
Maribeth Sullivan
Sent: Thursday, May 16, 2002 7:26 AM
To: SIGIA
Subject: [Sigia-l] Site Critique Permissions


I'm sure this topic was touched on at some point, but can't seem to find it
in the archives (it may have been tangential to other discussions): When
publicly deconstructing websites or publishing critiques with screenshots of
company websites to illustrate good or bad web design elements, what sort of
permissions should be obtained?

What are the ethical considerations? What are the legal considerations? Does
it make a difference if your publication is a book, white paper (free or for
sale), website article or blog?

Maribeth Sullivan,
Information Architect
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
Madigan Pratt & Associates
220 Middlesex Rd.,  Darien CT 06820
PH:203.656.4560 | FAX:203.656.4546
http://madiganpratt.com
Integrated 1-to-1 Marketing Consultants


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See http://www.asis.org/CM

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