I searched on this, but didn’t find any threads that had been posted since the most recent registration agreement (12/29/08).
I’m looking at possibly republishing some of my posts from the SD on a personal website, just for kicks. I had some questions about this.
The agreement says, in part: “All postings and other material on the SDMB are copyrighted by CLM. Republication of material appearing on the SDMB without express written permission of CLM is prohibited, except that users retain the right to republish their own work.”
How would each of these scenarios be affected by the reg agreement?
[ol]
[li]I republish one of my posts in its entirety, on my own personal website (I’m pretty sure this is covered).[/li][li]I republish one of my posts, and change the content materially in some way (let’s say I use whole passages from a post in an essay).[/li][li]I republish one of my posts, the original of which contained a quote from another user, and I remove any reference to the quote altogether.[/li][li]I republish one of my posts, the original of which contained a quote from another user, but instead of removing the quote, I replace it with a more generic wording. (e.g. instead of “<quote>Skald the Rhymer said ‘The sky is a certain shade in the bluish range’</quote> No it’s not” I replace it with “Some people say the sky is blue. No it’s not.”)[/li][/ol]
And finally, do I need to provide any attribution - “Originally published on the Straight Dope Message Board”? Many thanks in advance!
I kinda figured that, but I’m looking for something official.
The word “republish” has a pretty specific meaning from a copyright perspective, and the second and third scenarios aren’t exactly cut-and-dried examples of what I’d consider republishing.
You can do whatever you like with your own work. You don’t need to give us credit, although we’d be tickled if you did. As a general matter you can’t republish posts by others without their or our permission. Briefly quoting another’s post in one of your own would likely be considered fair use; a work consisting of nothing but quotes from others would be problematic. Stick with your own stuff and you’ll be fine.
Awesome - thanks everyone for the thorough response!
As for attribution - I’d love to attribute anything I can to the SDMB and spread the love, but my concern is that I’d rather not have certain friends, acquaintances, or family members who might be viewing the website to know my username on the Dope. And in posting “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.” - Originally published on SDMB, I’m giving them enough information to search by and figure it out.
I don’t really know why I don’t want them to know - it’s not like anything I’ve posted here would surprise anyone who knows me IRL. But I just would rather most of my RL acquaintances (save for my wife and a couple close friends) not know who I am on the dope.
Only if the folks viewing the posts Google the content - why would they? When I read someone’s wordpress blog, or an essay on hubpages, I don’t tend to Google for it.
I’m fine with that level of abstraction - if they want to Google it, I understand that they’ll find my SDMB username that way, but I doubt most of them would ever go so far. But directly attributing the content to the SDMB is the real giant blinking sign, and like I said, I’m probably being neurotic about the whole thing, but there you go.
This is an interesting topic, and it was neat to see such a quick reply from the powers-that-be.
But, Crown Prince of Irony, why in the world would you be embarrassed in any way whatsoever that you were a member of this board?
I have been all over the Internet (well not everywhere, but you get the idea) and this place is easily the least embarrassing message board that I have ever seen.
It doesn’t identify your religion, politics, social-strata or anything except your desire to ‘fight ignorance’ (or at least watch while ignorance is being fought).
This is a classy joint.
I’m just saying that for someone who’s claims to be neurotic, you’re doing something that gives away your identity to anyone who cares to look. Or merely to someone who’s trying to find something of yours by Googling a memory of certain words.
Up to you what you do, of course. It’s just that I’m also somebody who tries to keep my identity here private. And I would never ever under any circumstances use these words elsewhere. I try not to make similar comments on similar topics, even.
You’re either careful or you’re not. There’s no in-between any more.
Oh, I’m not embarrassed about the SDMB at all. Like I said, the idea of some IRL folks knowing who I am online just skeeves me a little for some odd reason.
But frankly, the more I think about it, the more irrational it seems that I want to keep my IRL acquaintances at arms length from my SDMB interactions. I’ve not posted anything here that I wouldn’t say to their faces, nor have I said anything here that would utterly embarrass me (I’ve come close on occasion, but not quite - that’s not much of a departure from real life).
