On 10/19/06, Alphax (Wikipedia email) <alphasigmax(a)gmail.com> wrote:
I'll bite.
Me too!
a) is an infringement of the copyright of the
site's authors and is rude.
Very true, on both accounts.
b) is plagiarism and is rude.
Not if you provide a source it ain't. If you provide a reference for
the information it is simply another piece of the encyclopedia. Hell,
this is what we do! We summarize and paraphrase other sources and put
it in neat little packets called "articles". If this really was just
paraphrasing (and not, as Mgm points out, just changing a few words) I
have no problem with it. Source it, and it's not only ok, it is
standard practice.
c) is plagiarism *and* copyright infringement of the
comic book
authors/artists, the latter of which we believe is justifiable under the
mysterious "fair use" and "fair dealing" clauses present in many
English-speaking countries (especially the US). It's also rude.
Again, it is only rude if we don't tell people were we got the images.
But lets not forget: this website has no claim whatsoever on the
copyrights. We don't have to give them anything, this is all Marvels
IP. I agree that we should give them credit because it's the nice
thing to do, but lets not forget that if it is genuine fair use and we
want the images, they have no right to complain.
In short:
1. DON'T INFRINGE ON COPYRIGHT. "Fair use" images should be the
exception to the rule and should NOT be used when a Free alternative is
available.
Yeah, how many free images of copyrighted superheroes do you think
there are? I can tell you: there ain't any! This is exactly why fair
use exists, this exact purpose! It would be insane (insane I tell
you!) not to take advantage of that glorious right.
2. Don't use a source without attribution. If we
can do it for NASA and
the US Government who so graciously put their works into the Public
Domain, we can at least acknowledge the hard work of people who have
carefully scanned (often rare) comic books and made those images
available online, and researched and written detailed summaries on said
comics.
Agree completely.
--Oskar