Regarding copyrights and full article quotes

[Grant Barrett]

I, too, take a liberal view of copyright laws, both domestic and international. As a
published former journalist and editor, former radio announcer, disk jockey and
station manager, former art director and current web developer, I'm sensitive to the
issues of copyright, fair use, licensing, public domain, etc., in print, broadcast and
digital forms.

In regards to posting full-text articles to ADS-L, I make this list an exception.
Ordinarily and elsewhere, I just post links and short extracts (which are perfectly
legal, despite frivolous anti-linking lawsuits). My reasons I make the ADS-L an
exception (though not often) are manifold:

1. Case law and research done by others suggests litigation regarding incidental and
infrequent full-article quoting is highly unlikely to be initiated, pursued or won.

2. Our purposes are academic. The list is run through an educational institution's
server, our web site is hosted on another educational institution's server and our
organization, the American Dialect Society, is academic-oriented.

3. Our purposes are non-profit and not-for-profit. We do not charge fees for
accessing the quoted material, or anything else, including the email list, the web site or
the archives. All of our services are hosted by non-profit or not-for-profit
organizations.

4. Our audience is narrowly defined. Our list membership is relatively small.
Although it is self-selecting, it is not general broadcast. The archives are available to
the web at large; however, they are not indexable by search engines or other third
parties, and so access to the archives is self-selecting and not general broadcast.

5. Proper credit citations are usually given, including publication name and an URL.


On a logistical point, links expire while our topics do not. I believe it is
important to have at least the most relevant parts of these articles available in our
archives, to save us from the recurring topic syndrome and the ever decaying web.


--
Grant Barrett
New York loves you back.
http://www.worldnewyork.org/