[Sigia-l] Site Critique Permissions

Fri May 17 13:49:12 EDT 2002

Hello molly,

It is basically safe if it the comment is editorial comment. No
permission is necessary if you just comment and review.

One legal measure? The percentage of their original material that you
use, and the percentage of your own content that essentially consists
of that original material owned by others.

Too far over those lines and you need to watch out.

David Austen

Friday, May 17, 2002, 1:17:27 PM, you wrote:

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

mws> 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
>>- - - - - - - - - - - - -
>>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
>>
>>
>>Content Management Symposium, Chicago O'Hare Marriott, June 28 - 30.
>>See http://www.asis.org/CM
>>
>>ASIST SIG IA: http://www.asis.org/SIG/SIGIA/index.html
>>_______________________________________________
>>Sigia-l mailing list
>>Sigia-l at asis.org
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>>
>>Content Management Symposium, Chicago O'Hare Marriott, June 28 - 30.
>>See http://www.asis.org/CM
>>
>>ASIST SIG IA: http://www.asis.org/SIG/SIGIA/index.html
>>_______________________________________________
>>Sigia-l mailing list
>>Sigia-l at asis.org
>>http://mail.asis.org/mailman/listinfo/sigia-l

mws> Content Management Symposium, Chicago O'Hare Marriott, June 28 - 30.
mws> See http://www.asis.org/CM

mws> ASIST SIG IA: http://www.asis.org/SIG/SIGIA/index.html
mws> _______________________________________________
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mws> Sigia-l at asis.org
mws> http://mail.asis.org/mailman/listinfo/sigia-l

-- 
Best regards,

David                           

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