ATTN ALL POSTERS: You Are Responsible To Read This Thread!! (service, origin)

[Alpha8207]

Posters, please be aware that CD is instituting a zero tolerance policy for copyright/non-original material. If you are posting information that you are not the author of and/or that is posted on another site, please post one or two key sentences and a link to that article. The volunteer and senior moderators do not have the time or resources to run every copyright disclaimer down and assure that we have complied to the source's wishes. As such, when moderators see a post that violates the measures outlined herein, we will warn, infract, and then ban(for serious cases there will be no warning and an immediate ban). We can not run the risk of jeopardizing the integrity of this site for the sake of a handful of posters who can't seem to grasp that CD is looking for and expecting original material. This topic is gravely serious to the owners/operators of City-Data.

Thanks for your cooperation.

[Marodi]

....huh....

[Alpha8207]

Originally Posted by Marodi

....huh....

If you don't understand the above post, I would strongly urge you not to copy and paste any information. I thought it was pretty clear, but if you still don't get it, play it safe.

[Tesaje]

There is such a thing as fair use in the copyright law. If there are a few salient points in an article, copyright law allows quotation of those, especially when then producing commentary on those points. You cannot, of course, copy the whole article or so much of it that it amounts to the same thing. If you couldn't do this, schools would be unable to teach much of anything.

Also, there is a law specifically stating that anything produced by anyone paid for by the US Government cannot be copyrighted and is in the public domain. Fully governmental sourced information, software, and documents can be copied freely in total. This includes all the programs and data produced by the Federal Government and by all Federal civil servants and contractors in their jobs so long as it isn't classified secret. State governments might be different.

I hope you are not trying to shut down fair use or governmental supplied information.

[Alpha8207]

City-Data.com is a privately owned and operated website. The rules and guidelines established here are solely determined by the owners and operators.

I direct you to two key points in the City-Data Terms of Service:

The owners of City-data.com forum reserve the right to remove, edit, move or close any thread for any reason.

The owners of City-data.com forum reserve the right to ban any user from access to this website for any reason.

City-Data.com is not trying to shut anything down but they are dead serious on enforcing the guidelines laid out in the OP of this thread. If you have an issue with those guidelines, you're welcome to DM Markablue, Yac or Administrator.

The rest of us are volunteer moderators on our own time. We've been asked to enforce the rules of this private forum. If the rules of this private forum don't suit individual posters, there are many other forums to participate in. I mean this in no disrespect, we don't want to lose any members over this issue. We also can not stake the integrity of this site on legal matters that are too cumbersome and complex for volunteers to police.

That's why we decided to post these guidelines so no one is oblivious when action must be taken.

Thanks

[Tesaje]

Ok, I understand that and understand being cautious on copyrighted material, but you didn't answer the question. Are you going to shut down citations from the US government? Things like weather data from the National Weather Service, IRS publications, Social Security publications, and things like that that are often talked about and misinterpreted on the forum especially if the source is cited so it is clear there is no copyright on the material?

The reason I ask is that draconian and unnecessary measures on clearly uncopyrighted material will put a real damper on the value of the discussions. Then people will start falling away from the forums and they will lose the lively and useful discussions. Also, US Gov. documents tend to be densely written and it helps understanding a lot if the pertinent points can be quoted out of what is usually a large document.

I'm not at all objecting to the caution on private material, copyrighted or not. That is understandable for the reasons cited and you did say a little 2 line excerpt is permissible.

[Lindsey_Mcfarren]

I tend to just put a link to the article, I think I may have on occasion put in one line IN QUOTES with a link to the article.

I think part of the concern is also wasting space on the server as well. I have quoted alot of articles by posting the link, I can't imagine how much longer the posts would be if I had copied and pasted them.

[MontanaGuy]

This same thing is enforced on other websites I post on. There's always the possibility that someone's copyrighted material appearing on this website or any other website without permission could result in legal problems for the owners. I usually copy and paste just a part of an article but now I'm going to have to get into the habit of posting the link. I'll try to remember.

[kawgpz550]

Yeah, I'm not real sure what's so hard to understand about the rules.

[Alpha8207]

Just a reminder to everyone to be alert to internet marketers, internet scams, internet panhandlers and anyone trying to solicit you for money and/or help.

We have had some instances lately of spammers and 'real' posters who are hunting for business or freebies from the good folks here at CD.

Please report any suspicious activity or solicitations to one of the moderators and we will try and address. Sad to say that there are some folks out there looking to prey on the good nature of folks and unfortunately the internet makes it easy to hide behind nice words and facades and predators abound.

Just an FYI and please don't feel like you're betraying someone if you ask us to look into it. There might be a little 'Something' inside sending you some red flags. We will be as discreet and confidential as possible when dealing with the situations.

Also, make sure you use the report post feature ( ) when a suspect thread appears. We're sure to be on those ASAP.

Thanks all and DM me with any questions or concerns you might have.

Thanks

Alpha