Larc,
SIGH. I thought we had cleared this one up, but seems not with you. I AM NOT DARK CLOUDS. He's my LIVE-IN BOYFRIEND.
_I_-- SUZI-- am the owner/webmistress/el presidente of my website. DC writes there when he gets around to not posting to this place... geez.
I already had my account deleted once, I don't much appreciate that, and I would thank you to not try to keep the joke going about me being Chuck. That being said, yes, I DO have some knowledge about reimbursing the artists/writers/photographers/programmers on my site. It's mostly by trade, and they sign a contract stating specifically that they give me permission to use their work. That, and since they aren't known, they don't have agents/publishers, so the legal issues are a lot easier.
The programmers can use me as a reference if needed, and since I'm technically a dot com, not of the huge corporate variety, but nonetheless, a dot com (who I'm proud to say, lasted through the dot com bankruptcy times), it's good practice. And they get to use my webspace for demo stuff.
I learned about fair use laws when I was getting my masters degree, so I still have a list of websites, etc. where fair use laws are given for various forms of media (including writing, art, photography, multimedia including Flash presentations, AVI and MOV files, movie clips, etc.)
I went through a lot of BS when I started the site. I've had people use my pictures on their porn sites and without permission, which is in direct violation of copyright AND fair use guidelines. Especially since I try to keep everything as safe for enlightened family viewing as possible.
A quick run-down of loopholes for copyright issues. (Believe me, there's a million of em)
If you use a musical piece, and it's for educational purposes and not within public domain (classical music is considered public), you are allowed to sample up to 30 seconds of a song, or no more than 35% of the entire musical piece.
How to get around that: sample it, and change it to something more akin to your liking. As long as it's not recognizable as the original sample, it's considered a new work.
If you use images, you need permission from the photographer and the model, unless the photographer has sole ownership and a release form from the model/legal guardian.
How to get around it: warp the picture in some way. I believe it's something like three filtered effects applied to an image so that it is markedly different from the original, it's considered a new work.
Writing... that's a lot trickier. If the author does not have an international copyright, and you're in another country other than where the author is writing, then technically it's alright to use the work, as long as you have permission/give credit to the author and the work. It was due to an international copyright clause that a copy of Nosferatu (the Murnau version of 1922) survived being destroyed. (briefly: a relative of Bram Stoker was trying to claim that the movie was a form of plaigerism, and that because no permission/royalties had been exchanged, every copy of the movie in Europe was to be destroyed. The loophole was that inernational copyright law had never been applied for by Stoker, so technically the international copyright was up for grabs, and Nosferatu was saved in America from being wiped out.)
OK.. getting back. Writing is harder to use without signed documentation to cover your ass. That's the unfortunate truth. I explain that to my writers and to anyone who submits any form of art/writing to my site. If I choose to use their work, it's automatically giving me permission with no future objections, to use it as I see fit. Internet laws are finally starting to catch up with copyright laws, but it's honestly safer to be "safe" and cover your ass. When a publishing company views a site with quotes being used, they view the site as a total work, not page by page. You may have used a quote per page, but if the book is only 10 pages long and your site is ten pages total, it's an infringment.
Ultimately, if you have permission, even if the author says it's OK, get it in writing, and use proper quoting technique to give credit, combined with a link back to the author's personal site.
So endeth my ten cents worth. Hope it helped.
When you go to a copyright site, with info, make sure to check the last time it was updated to be sure you're getting the most current copyright laws, especially since just in the two years it took me to get my masters, the laws changed significantly.
Suzi-- who isn't Chuck
Because I could not stop for Death
He kindly stopped and took me out to lunch.
