Concerned about the posting of copyrighted material

[neatdesign]

Ok, I know this is going to make me sound like a dork, but the more I participate in these forums, the more I'm concerned about a very common practice I've seen.

That is, people posting whole articles with absolutely no sources referenced, no link to the original article, nothing. And from the way these articles are written, most of them are copyrighted material.

I'm not talking about the articles posted by the volunteers to this forum, the moderators, etc. I'm talking about regular, random members who are copying-and-pasting someone else's work and not giving them credit for it.

I realize that this is done with the intention of helping the greater good. However, copyright infringement is copyright infringement. I'm really surprised that this site, which by all accounts is very reputable, would allow even the possibility that this would occur on its forums.

Other forums I participate in expressly forbid this practice. For instance, one of the posting rules for one site I've been a member of for many years (BritishExpats.com) reads:

"You cannot legally post entire articles or news in the forum without permission from the copyright holder. Even if you attribute the article correctly it is still copyright infringement. Minor fair use excerpts of less than one paragraph or 4 sentences may be used if the content is publically available on the internet. All other forms of inserted content from press releases, newsletters, web pages, or any other copyrighted content placed into messages will be removed without exception. A link to the content is acceptable and appropriate."

So my question is: Why doesn't this site have a similar policy?

~ Jenney

[jeffrey]

Believe me, being someone who has his material stolen without credit all the time, we don't support posting of copyrighted material without giving credit and take down any material that is copyrighted that comes to our attention. I'm sure more of it gets on the site now that I don't have time to read every thread that is out there and that is where the community needs to step up. If you have a problem with any posting, there is a red triangle in the right top corner of every post. Simply click it and it will send an email to us to look at it directly.

[Broken Arrow]

Sadly, this is a very common internet problem.

I believe the source of it is that people want to take credit for someone else's work.

Not only is hard to detect sometimes, but it can also be difficult to enforce.

Still, it isn't right, and I believe it's worth at least making people aware of it as one of the forum registration rules?

[jeffrey]

I did a quick go through wth the forums and while there was a bit that I cleaned up, I didn't find it an overwhelming problem here. Most people seem to reference articles with a link and their own comments about them (If I'm missing the area where they are all sitting, point me the way and I'll take care of it)

I also noticed there are some article type posts that have been made that may appear to be copyrighted material, but are actually the work of the person that posted them here in the forums that they shared.

I will place something into the rules, but doubt it will have any effect...unfortunately most people never read those. Still, not a bad idea to have that placed in there. If you do come across instances of it, use the red triangle and I will take care of it asap.