The Firing Line Forums - Announcements in Forum : Site Questions and Tech Support (NO FIREARMS QUESTIONS)

**Staff** · August 10, 2010 until August 10, 2020

Recently, lawsuits claiming copyright infringement have been filed against several websites on behalf of at least one newspaper, with the prospect of many more to come.

The suits claim, among other things, that participants of the website copied and pasted whole articles from the newspaper’s website in violation of copyright laws.

Anything ‘published’ on the web is viewed as intellectual property and, regardless of whether it displays a copyright symbol or not, is therefore copyrighted by the originator. The only exception to this is if there is a “free and unrestricted reuse” statement associated with the work.

At this time there is no way of telling what the outcome of these lawsuits will be, but it is expected that there will be many more of them as other newspapers, magazines, etc., sign on in an effort to protect their intellectual property.

In order to protect our members and TFL from possible litigation, all members must abide by the following new rules:

1. Copying and pasting entire articles from another site to TFL is strictly prohibited.

2. Copyright law provides for “fair use” of portions of a copyrighted work. You can copy no more than a SINGLE paragraph from the article to your post (3 or 4 sentences at most).

3. You must provide a link to the article along with the name of website. For example: ww.xxx.yyy/zzz (The Lower Thumbsuck Daily News).

4. You must provide, in your own words, a brief summary of the article AND your reasons for believing it will be of interest to TFL members. Failure to do so may result in the thread being closed or your post being deleted as a “cut and paste drive by.”

5. Photographs and other images are also copyrighted. "Hotlinking" of images (so that it appears in your message) from other sites is also prohibited unless you own rights to the image. If you wish to share an image, provide a clickable link to it.

Posts that do not follow these new guidelines will be altered or deleted by staff. Members who continue to violate this policy may lose their posting privileges at TFL.

Thank you for your cooperation and your participation in TFL, the leading online forum for firearms enthusiasts.

August 10, 2010 until August 10, 2020
Staff Moderator Join Date: October 6, 1998 Posts: 65	New TFL Policy for referencing copyrighted material Recently, lawsuits claiming copyright infringement have been filed against several websites on behalf of at least one newspaper, with the prospect of many more to come. The suits claim, among other things, that participants of the website copied and pasted whole articles from the newspaper’s website in violation of copyright laws. Anything ‘published’ on the web is viewed as intellectual property and, regardless of whether it displays a copyright symbol or not, is therefore copyrighted by the originator. The only exception to this is if there is a “free and unrestricted reuse” statement associated with the work. At this time there is no way of telling what the outcome of these lawsuits will be, but it is expected that there will be many more of them as other newspapers, magazines, etc., sign on in an effort to protect their intellectual property. In order to protect our members and TFL from possible litigation, all members must abide by the following new rules: 1. Copying and pasting entire articles from another site to TFL is strictly prohibited. 2. Copyright law provides for “fair use” of portions of a copyrighted work. You can copy no more than a SINGLE paragraph from the article to your post (3 or 4 sentences at most). 3. You must provide a link to the article along with the name of website. For example: ww.xxx.yyy/zzz (The Lower Thumbsuck Daily News). 4. You must provide, in your own words, a brief summary of the article AND your reasons for believing it will be of interest to TFL members. Failure to do so may result in the thread being closed or your post being deleted as a “cut and paste drive by.” 5. Photographs and other images are also copyrighted. "Hotlinking" of images (so that it appears in your message) from other sites is also prohibited unless you own rights to the image. If you wish to share an image, provide a clickable link to it. Posts that do not follow these new guidelines will be altered or deleted by staff. Members who continue to violate this policy may lose their posting privileges at TFL. Thank you for your cooperation and your participation in TFL, the leading online forum for firearms enthusiasts.