[Sigia-l] Site Critique Permissions

[molly wright steenson]

Why would this be much different than reviewing a record album, movie or 
book? Even if they get bad reviews, to my knowledge, it is not necessary to 
ask permission first. If quotes are used from a book or song lyrics, that 
doesn't fall under infringement.

At 08:49 AM 5/17/2002 -0700, Tal Herman wrote:
>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||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
>therman-at-seralat.com||http://www.seralat.com
>||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
>
>-----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
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