The message below was sent to the listowner's list by Dr. Brian
Leverich. Hope it clears up a few questions on what we can or
can't send to the list.
Virginia
From: Brian Leverich
Subject: Re: Lists & Copyright Considerations
Date: Monday, November 17, 1997 11:52 PM
RootsWeb has worked very hard to avoid a lot of formalities.
The
current AUP only has three requirements for the users of free
facilities here:
o No copyrighted material, save by permission. (Fair Use
is obviously OK, though.)
o No GEDCOMs in free Web space. (Obviously doesn't apply to
lists.)
o No commercial activities.
But mainly, the acceptable use policy is Just Use Common Sense.
Take the copyright issue. For heaven's sake don't ask RootsWeb
for
talmudic dispensations on the fine points of what is and isn't
OK:
just use common sense. If folks quote short passages and
acknowledge the sources, that's almost surely Fair Use. If
someone
decides to post a chapter out of one book every day until they
post
the whole book front to back, that's surely not OK.
Carol, your original post drew a response from me because it
sounded
like it justified listowners ducking the copyright issue
altogether,
and that's not OK. But RootsWeb doesn't expect listowners to
be
lawyers with expertise in intellectual property law and to get
every
nit and nat right; we just want you to accept responsibility
for
helping us avoid the more egregious situations where we have to
waste a day or two's time smoothing things over with a wronged
author.
Just use common sense. Thanks for your help, B.
--
Dr. Brian Leverich Co-moderator,
soc.genealogy.methods/GENMTD-L
RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative