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by Jim in a Nautilus COAT on January 16th, 2009
I'm guessing a strong argument could be made that, so long as the copied material isn't long, simply cutting and pasting a copyrighted question or answer here would fall within the fair use protections and is not copyright violation.
Would You Consider "Answer Bag" A Blog Site? If So Why? If Not, Why And What Is It Really?
by RZFI7 on August 5th, 2011
| 1 person likes this
what does TF stand for in "texting terms" ?
by QuestionPerson on September 11th, 2011
| 1 person likes this
How do you mind your own business and still be a AB member?
by Sugeehaz on July 20th, 2011
| 3 people like this
Should the AB age be 18?
by Closed Cal on October 30th, 2011
| 5 people like this
Answerbag want you to open more than one account. Are you?
by lia8888 on September 18th, 2011
| 1 person likes this
You're reading What's the policy re: answers that are a literal "cut and paste" of content from elsewhere - sometimes even with the COPYRIGHT notice saying copying isn't ok?
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Comments
Ooops .. maybe I wasn't clear. Didn't mean to say it was question and answer content .. as in from another Q& A site or something.
I meant any source at all online with "content" .. that answers the question. Could be an individual's website. Could be commercial. Could be from a non-profit. Could be an educational site. Or government site.
You bring up a good point that "the length of" something in proportion to the original whole is certainly a factor when determining fair use .. but even then ... it's typically to do a review or critique of "it" vs plugging down long bits of text here at AB to answer a question. And it's one factor of many.
Many sites hold "us" accountable for content we add to the site .. and say that it must be original ..ie .. content we own .. or have rights to if owned by someone else.
Just wondered (since there's no flag for it) how it's normally been handled here at AB.
Did that help clarify what I'm trying to ask?
by debtahals wears a curiosity COAT on January 16th, 2009
If it's a direct quote it should include attribution, but I really believe that anything short of a substantial part or whole of a work can legally be quoted as the answer to a question and would fall under fair use.
I am guessing AB attorneys have looked at it and feel the same, or they would provide a way to flag it.
by Jim in a Nautilus COAT on January 16th, 2009
Well, think I've got my answer. Just wandered off to find the AB Terms of Use. Here they are:
http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/15
Moderation flags exist. However, they aren't meant as tools to flag potential instances of copyright infringement as seen in user content contributed. Instead, as I began to suspect, responsibility for content we contribute is clearly laid out in the TOU.
As such, a copyright owner would have to contact AB staff about what they see as an in fringement (and AB has made it clear it's the users, not AB who is responsible for what is contributed and its IP status). AB would then investigate - and have the TOU agreement btw itself and the AB user to go by.
So if I see something that I think might be an infringement, I'm personally going to consider it none of my business.
And of course, I'll think about IP as we talked about here as I go about contributing content myself.
So far, only run into a handful of potential copyright infringement posts.
Thanks!
by debtahals wears a curiosity COAT on January 16th, 2009