REASONED SPIRITUALITY: Exploring spirituality, the meaning of life, the concept of God.

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COPYRIGHT

As this website has grown in popularity, the instances of copyright infringement have increased accordingly. I feel that this is a good time to explain copyright laws in easy to understand terms.

The creator of any tangible works holds the exclusive right to distribute, reproduce, sell, perform, display, or create derivatives of said works. This means that text, images, and even original dance moves belong only to the originator. Using work that was created by someone else without first obtaining their permission is against the law. As you can see, derivatives are also part of the law, so changing some of the words in an excerpt, or translating it into another language, is still illegal. Every country in the world enforces copyright.

A copyright is enforceable from the moment it is put to paper (or disk), and a copyright notice is not necessary. The only “public domain” that exists is material that is produced by the federal government, abandoned by the owner, or expired. In almost all of the world, copyright is in force until 50 years after the death of the creator. United States copyright regulations are driven by corporate owners, and a confusing registration system has resulted in a variety of expiry dates, with certain copyrights lasting as long as 95 years.

The Fair Use Provision (also called Fair Dealing) allows people to use copyrighted material without the author’s permission. This is only for news reporting, education, and research. It allows for the use of a portion of any given work which must be attributed to the copyright holder; otherwise it is plagiarism. Paraphrasing copyrighted material is permissible under Fair Use, but failing to credit your “source of inspiration” is still illegal.

In most cases, someone discovering that you have violated their copyright will send you a “cease and desist” message, requiring you to either remove the offending material, or correctly attribute it. If it is deemed that you have in any way detracted from the potential value of the material, or have profited in any way from it, you can be sued. Server owners who knowingly permit plagiarized material to remain on their equipment are also legally accountable. When a System Administrator receives a Cease and Desist Order, you can be sure that the offending website will be removed; and if you read the fine print on your agreement, you will find that a server will supply the complainant with all of the personal information they need about the offender in order to proceed with a lawsuit.

To sum up: if you want to use anything created by someone else, ask permission; if you are certain it falls under the Fair Use Provision, give credit to the owner.

 

The Copyright Law of the United States of America
Berne Convention
The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights


Site map indexHomeComments?Links to sites of interest
Part 1:  IntroductionPart 2:  BalancePart 3:  DivisionsPart 4:  Unitypart 5:  Concept of GodPart 6:  Defining GodPart 7:  SexualityPart 8:  Instinctive MoralityPart 9:  Moral Compromise - ReproductionPart 10: Moral Obligation - ReproductionPart 11:  DeterminismPart 12:  Determining Our DestinyPart 13:  Good and EvilPart 14: Crime and PunishmentPart 15:  Belief - fact and faithPart 16: MaterialismPart 17: AppreciationPart 18:  Abstract PerceptionPart 19:  RelationshipsRelationships (conclusion)Part 21:  DeathPart 22:  KnowledgePart 23: Knowledge - geneticsPart 24: Knowledge (conclusion)Part 25: Meaning of LifePart 26: Meaning of Life (continued)Part 27: Meaning of Life (conclusion)

Copyright 2001 B.W.Holmes - all rights reserved (unless noted otherwise). Quotes from ancient literary works do not carry a copyright.