23rd May 2012, 08:20 PM
Jack Wrote:I'd love to know whose website 'stole' from whos............but guess will never know coz of AUP's.
I doubt whether copyright covers 'what an evaluation is' etc. as these definitions have been defined and redefined over and over again by so many people, organisations etc they have become 'factoids'.
But not sure how much of a website would be copyrighted.
Usual practical guidance is if its substantially altered its ok I think? It is different if you are publishing ideas/work that is others. Or if you are selling it.
Photographs are indeed a different matter though.
This is the problem with copyright, there are a lot of misconceptions about it. What I am writing now is copyright and what you wrote in your original message is too, but if I was to just copy your text into another message on this Forum and pass it off as my own I would be in breach of copyright. Since I would not be making any money from that I doubt you would be bothered, unless it in some way led to you being in a slanderous/libellous situation. Similarly if I was in some way making money from it.
While there are plenty of definitions of 'what an evaluation is' out there, the IfAs for starters, copying directly and sticking on your website is a breach of copyright and since you would be passing it off as your own, and potentially making money from it (as it acts as advertising) the copyright holder might well be pretty peed off. Add to that the downright laziness and deviousness of not bothering to come up with some original text and it doesn't come across very well.
Photos are no different, but people tend to get a lot more upset about their re-use without permission, perhaps partly because its very quick to spot when one has been pinched.
Hopefully BAJR's quiet word has done the trick, it certainly seems to have.