Howdy nuttems-ga,
A reminder of the: "Important Disclaimer: Answers and comments provided on
Google Answers are general information, and are not intended to substitute
for informed professional medical, psychiatric, psychological, tax, legal,
investment, accounting, or other professional advice."
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) web site reproduces a great article
titled "AN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW PRIMER FOR MULTIMEDIA AND WEB DEVELOPERS"
as written by J. Dianne Brinson and Mark F. Radcliffe. Aptly enough, because
of copyright law, I can't reproduce the whole article here, so you should read
it yourself for details. Here are a few pertinent excerpts.
http://www.eff.org/Censorship/Academic_edu/CAF/law/ip-primer
"Original multimedia [web sites are multimedia, that is text and images] works
are protected by copyright."
...
"When a new work is created by copying an existing copyrighted work, copyright
infringement exists if the new work is 'substantially similar' to the work that
was copied."
The article goes into detail on the "five exclusive rights" the copyright owner
has, including:
" ...
- Reproduction Right. The reproduction right is the right to copy duplicate,
transcribe, or imitate the work in fixed form.
... "
Again, you should read the article in detail, but it would appear that you
would break all sorts of copyright laws if you did what you are proposing,
even if you weren't to charge anything for access.
It would also appeat that you would need to get permission from the owners
and/or designers of the web sites in question before you could reproduce them,
even if by screen capture.
If you need any clarification, feel free to ask.
Search Strategy
Google search on: "copyright law" "web site"
://www.google.com/search?q=%22copyright+law%22+%22web+site%22
Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher |
Clarification of Answer by
denco-ga
on
09 May 2004 22:00 PDT
Howdy nuttems-ga,
Some feedback on the Comment by mvguy-ga.
Yes, there are some circumstances where "fair use" comes in to play, and those
are outlined in the web site referenced in the Answer I provided for you.
However, here are the "real world" circumstances. If you use screen captures
of some people's web sites, they won't mind, care or do anything about it, no
matter if it is copyright infringement.
There are other people, companies to be specific, that even if it is within
the "fair use" doctrine, you will most certainly, without any doubt at all,
get a letter from their attorney. Your ISP might also get a letter as well,
referencing the "Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998" (DMCA) and then
your ISP might (right or wrong) remove your site completely.
Then you get the "privilege" to hire an attorney of your own, no matter if
you are in the right or not. Again, welcome to the "real" world.
To prevent this completely, you should most certainly get permission from
the parties concerned. It is my personal experience that as long as the
result provides positive exposure to the parties concerned, you shouldn't have
that much trouble getting permission to do what you intend. There are plenty
of well designed web sites, so you shouldn't have any shortage of candidates.
By doing so, you will avoid most of the problems you could really incur.
Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher
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