|
In Reply to: A question Jane: posted by goth88 on August 20, 2002 at 11:07:31:
A minor point regarding the issue of copyright infringement...
You can quote from publications. You can do it even if the Family tells you that you can't. That is fair use. I'll be happy to argue that with any of my personal friends that don't understand this point.
You just can't republish the entire document.
The spirit of the copyright laws is so people who create intellectual property can control what they own. For example, if I write a book called "War and Peace", you can't type it out and put it online so others can read it. That would take distribution of my book out of my control.
You can, however, write a review of the book. You can write a BAD review of the book. In the review, you can quote text word for word, as long as you don't quote a substantial part of the work (such as typing out the whole book with quote marks at the start and end).
As far as victims, I think people need to be very careful that the crimes they talk about, happened to them personally. Not the sister of their friend's uncle's niece. I see a great deal of heresay on the boards, and that is dangerous.
For example, when I'm around ex-members and someone mentioned seeing "Josh", five people start asking questions.. Was that Big Josh? Little Josh? TSC Josh? Josh the Greek? Mexican Josh? Malibu Barbie Josh? Bald Josh, Josh of Jeezlesnot?
Someone writes on the board that "Josh" did something nasty, and suddenly everyone fills in the blanks. Pretty soon Jeezlesnot's husband is getting his ass kicked, and he got out of the Family before the RNR.
I'm not saying that people should not tell their stories. I just think they should make sure it is indeed their own personal story, and that they are careful not to do it in a manner that might cause some innocent person to suffer.
