# Kevin & Kell 4/16: "Copyright. The legal responsibilities of an ISP."

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kevin-kell-4-16-copyright-the-legal-responsibilities-of-an-isp/169103>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [April 16, 2003, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kevin-kell-4-16-copyright-the-legal-responsibilities-of-an-isp/169103 "2003-04-16T16:20:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2003, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kevin-kell-4-16-copyright-the-legal-responsibilities-of-an-isp/169103/1 "2003-04-16T16:20:18Z")

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Given that this has to do with how the SDMB is run, I’m putting it in ATMB. Feel free to move.

Now to the subject at hand. The [April 16[sup]th[/sup] strip of Kevin & Kell](http://www.kevinandkell.com/2003/kk0416.html), probably the first in a series, deals with the ramifications of a copyright violation. Even though the violation involves an ISP, it could also apply to message boards, especially one which routinely has people posting cites from external sources.

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**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2003, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kevin-kell-4-16-copyright-the-legal-responsibilities-of-an-isp/169103/2 "2003-04-16T16:43:24Z")

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Ah yes, comic strip legal advice. Can’t get better than that. 😉

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**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2003, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kevin-kell-4-16-copyright-the-legal-responsibilities-of-an-isp/169103/3 "2003-04-17T15:14:55Z")

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Posting cites or links that fall under Fair Usage seems to be OK. That means that short quotes, correctly attributed, are acceptable; it means that providing links to the original source should be acceptable. Quoting (or cutting-and-pasting) large sections (or entire works, whether written material, comics, art, or whatever) are verboten. We do our best to enforce our understanding of the copyright rules here. We tend, probably, to be stricter than we need to be – it’s a case of the Golden Rule, we don’t want people copying our stuff, so we don’t allow copying.