Posting Articles and Fair Use of Copyrighted Material

Azdak

A number of people on this site have a habit of copying and pasting entire articles from other sites and then posting them here on the MFP forums.

I realize that intellectual theft and plagiarism are the backbone of the internet, so I suspect I am tilting at windmills here, but it would be nice if folks followed some ethical guidelines when posting copyrighted material. I belong to a number of other forums that have clear rules about this practice.

However poorly written or shallow an article might be, it still represents somebody's effort. Not to mention, much of the economy of the internet--and the financial support for "free" sites like MFP--comes from advertisements. In order to generate revenue, websites must develop content that drives traffic to their sites. Cutting and pasting an article in its entirety on MFP is not only lazy, it is a form of theft--granted the actual $ amount is probably minute, but it's the principle that counts.

Many sites have "fair use" guidelines. This usually means that it is allowable to quote 2-3 paragraphs from a copyrighted story or article to highlight the "theme" of the article or to identify a key point or two. Anything more is not allowed. One then includes a link to the actual story if the reader chooses to go to the original site and read the entire article.

The idea is that someone calling attention to an article should be posting it within the context of their own ideas and opinions, not just plagiarizing someone else's words.

I know that many people will consider this a minor issue, but, since I have suffered a pretty severe achilles tendon injury, I'm afraid that climbing on my soapbox is my only available workout for today.

Just something to think about.

lotusfromthemud

Bump, and seconded. Because I'm nitpicky and detail oriented, I'll also add that it's actually a violation of forum rule #10.

I have a few blog things that are "out there" on the internet, and it really sucks to see it pop up somewhere without any credit given. I know the intent is probably to share information someone found useful, but sometimes I have to read stuff pretty carefully to notice "hey...this is a copy/pasted article from somewhere else."

The better thing to do, IMHO is to post a link to the original article. That way the owner of the article gets the web traffic/teeny income they get from their posts.

FelipaJ

Good point.

I saw a recipe posted yesterday and thought the poster was the 'creator' of the recipe, just to find it later in my email from another website.

randyv99

Not only do I respect you being a party pooper but I enjoy your candor and humor as well. Never do you fail to enlighten and entertain. Ahh the age old fair use, piracy and intellectual property discussion. Many folks are on many sides of this discussion but having been on both sides of the line I can respect giving credit where credit is due. Even if you love an article so much that you copy the entire thing, at the very least a link to the original article should be included. Sources, citations, fair use and copyright may seem like a minor issue for an individual but a huge issue to a place where many individuals come together whether it is a forum such as MyFitnessPal or any webpage. Let's not risk getting our dear MFP developers and moderators (not to mention ourselves) into any undue legal trouble by overlooking the rights of others on the internet. Here here for Azdak for calling this to eveyone's attention in a blunt, knowledgeable, effectual and humorous manner.

(Can you tell that I love this guy?) Happy Posting.

cparter

You hit the nail on the head again. Your wisdom and advice is always accepted.

chanstriste13

well said, and i agree! hope your achilles is back in order soon.

epa422

Thank you! This bothers the editor in me to no end. Someone spent time on that information and very likely someone else spent more time perfecting it. Their work should stand as their work and on one else's.

MisdemeanorM

Things like recipes cannot be copyrighted, so no need to (legally) give credit to someone for it - odds are that person or site did not make it up either!

IsMollyReallyHungry

Not only do I respect you being a party pooper but I enjoy your candor and humor as well. Never do you fail to enlighten and entertain. Ahh the age old fair use, piracy and intellectual property discussion. Many folks are on many sides of this discussion but having been on both sides of the line I can respect giving credit where credit is due. Even if you love an article so much that you copy the entire thing, at the very least a link to the original article should be included. Sources, citations, fair use and copyright may seem like a minor issue for an individual but a huge issue to a place where many individuals come together whether it is a forum such as MyFitnessPal or any webpage. Let's not risk getting our dear MFP developers and moderators (not to mention ourselves) into any undue legal trouble by overlooking the rights of others on the internet. Here here for Azdak for calling this to eveyone's attention in a blunt, knowledgeable, effectual and humorous manner.

(Can you tell that I love this guy?) Happy Posting.

I agree!!!

Mindful_Trent

BUMP! Seems like I've been seeing a LOT of this lately! It's so much better to just link to the page where the article originally appears.

lotusfromthemud

bump.

lotusfromthemud

and again, because I'm that way....


bump.

foxyforce

i have to cite in research, when i post a link, it does the citation for me

and to add, haven't you heard the theory that the very idea of "property" is theft, thus...will continue just to post links :P