[Air-L] Permission to reproduce webpages?

Wed Sep 1 18:07:05 PDT 2010

  The law presumably requires more than a simple assertion of such 
rights to make such a claim legally binding.  Or enforceable.  I could 
assert that no one else has permission to reproduce the words I'm typing 
now -- and then try to sue anyone on the listserv who quotes them in 
their response (or who copies this email into a new folder, or who backs 
up the hard drive where they're storing air-l emails, etc.) -- but I 
doubt there's a court in the world where I could win such a suit.

cheers
gil

On 09/01/2010 07:28 PM, Philippa Smith wrote:
> Dear Gil,
>
> But what is the case if a website specifies that no reproduction of the
> website or its content may be used without permission?  As researchers
> are we still legally bound to ask permission?
>
> Kind regards
>
> Philippa
>
>>>> "Gilbert B. Rodman"<gbrodman at mindspring.com>  09/02/10 11:29 AM>>>
>    Two quick comments here, both AGAINST the notion that André
> necessarily has to ask for permission to use the images in question.
>
> First, "fair use" arguably disappears -- in specific cases, if not as a
> whole -- the moment you ask for permission.  At the very least, asking
> for permission potentially prevents you from asserting "fair use" later
> (which you might still want to do if, for example, your request isn't
> answered in a timely fashion), since it demonstrates that you don't
> believe your quotation of the material qualifies as "fair use."
>
> Second, "fair use" isn't simply some technical quirk in US copyright law
>
> that allows scholars to get away with what is otherwise morally
> questionable activity.  It is arguably one of the basic rights that
> enables us -- along with journalists, reviewers, critics, and a vast
> range of other cultural commentators -- to do our jobs.  I'm willing to
> bet that the publisher André is dealing with is NOT making him secure
> permission every time he quotes printed texts.  He undoubtedly needs to
> attribute such quotes properly, and there are likely to be restrictions
> on how much of a source he can quote ... but "fair use" is what allows
> scholars to quote words written by other people (and reviewers to quote
> bits of books, songs, plays, movies, etc.) in the ordinary practices of
> research, criticism, and commentary without having to formally granted
> permission to do so.  Put a different way, "fair use" is one of the
> major things that keeps copyright holders from using charges of
> "infringement" as a backhanded means of controlling public commentary
> about the works in question.
>
>
> cheers
> gil
>
>
> On 09/01/2010 05:16 PM, Brian Holland wrote:
>> The AP is particularly litigious in this regard.  They have an
> extensive licensing program and they expect folks to use it.  In fact,
> the existence of such a program is a major factor against fair use --
> i.e., it makes your claim of fair use less likely to succeed.
>> - Brian
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org
> [mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of André Brock
>> Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2010 5:08 PM
>> To: Philippa Smith; air-l at listserv.aoir.org
>> Subject: Re: [Air-L] Permission to reproduce webpages?
>>
>> Thanks, Philippa!  I appreciate the heads up.  Fortunately, the sites
> we
>> examined (Racialicious, Jezebel, and Essence.com for those keeping
> score at
>> home) aren't pulling from AP (thank god!).
>>
>> I'll keep y'all posted on my progress and outcome.
>>
>> André
>>
>> On Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 4:51 PM, Philippa
> Smith<philippa.smith at aut.ac.nz>wrote:
>>> Just as an aside and to throw a spanner in the works -  I've had a
>>> situation where we wanted to use a screenshot from an online
> newspaper
>>> but because the source of the article was  Associated Press we had to
>>> get their permission as well to reproduce the text.  This came at a
>>> financial cost.  It's worth noting whether websites contain material
>>> from other sources that might also need permission.  Unfortunately
> this
>>> is a can of worms scenario.
>>>
>>> Kind regards
>>>
>>> Philippa
>>>
>>> Philippa Smith
>>> PhD Candidate
>>> Institute of Culture, Discourse&   Communication
>>> AUT University
>>> Auckland
>>> NEW ZEALAND
>>>
>>>>>> André Brock<andre.brock at gmail.com>   09/02/10 9:41 AM>>>
>>> Thanks to everyone who's answered me so far (Hi, Annette!).  The
> legal
>>> advice was particularly helpful, and i'm going to follow
> Ulf-Dietrich's
>>> advice and contact the websites - i have contacts at a couple of
> them.
>>> Does AoIR have a specific statement on fair use of Internet/ICT
>>> materials
>>> for research in the field?  I know we have an extensive sasking)
>>>
>>> André
>>>
>>> On Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 10:22 AM, Andre Brock<andre.brock at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> For the first time in, well, ever I've been asked by a journal to
>>> obtain
>>>> permission from a website to reproduce a screenshot of a webpage.
>>> Not, to
>>>> be clear, of an image on the page - but of the page itself.   I've
>>> been
>>>> offered the option of removing the image and replacing it with a
> URL,
>>> but
>>>> from an archival standpoint that's problematic.  Webpages with
> dynamic
>>>> content change all the time, not to mention that authors sometimes
>>> change
>>>> formats/platforms, modify pages, or remove content that was included
>>> in the
>>>> original analysis.
>>>>
>>>> I don't want to miss the publishing deadline, but I need to know:
>>> "where
>>>> dey do dat at?!?" (translation: since when did fair use guidelines
> get
>>> bent
>>>> so badly in academic publishing?)
>>>>
>>>> André Brock
>>>> Assistant Professor, SLIS/POROI
>>>> University of Iowa
>>>>
>>>>
>>> --
>>> Andre Brock
>>> Assistant Professor - Library and Information Science/POROI
>>> University of Iowa
>>> Iowa City, IA 52242
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
>>> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers
> http://aoir.org
>>> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at:
>>> http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
>>>
>>> Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
>>> http://www.aoir.org/
>>>
>>>
> _______________________________________________
> The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at:
> http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
>
> Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
> http://www.aoir.org/
>
>