# The Internet, Research Papers, Copyright Law and Me **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 18, 2003, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-internet-research-papers-copyright-law-and-me/169600 "2003-04-18T17:50:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dragonblink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Dragonblink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragonblink)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-internet-research-papers-copyright-law-and-me/169600/1 "2003-04-18T17:50:29Z")
Last quarter I wrote a paper for my sociolinguistics class on “Expressive and Prosodic Elements in Internet Registers of English” (translation: the way people use text to convey online ways of speaking that wouldn’t normally be communicated through text, like tone, speed, pitch and pronunciation). My professor and I have discussed the possibility of publishing an expanded version of that as an undergraduate research paper. Now, when I was just putting the paper together for a grade, it was for “educational purposes” and I could kinda bypass the usual copyright and permission laws. If I publish it, I can’t do that. Does anyone know the laws and regulations concerning online sources? I know that were I to use my examples from the SDMB, I’d need permission from the Chicago Reader (which I’m unlikely to get) and the poster him or herself. Most websites, I’m assuming I need permission for whoever holds the copyrights for the page. But what about IRC channels? Do I have to inform the people in a chat room that I’m logging the chat for possible publishing? Do I have to get individuals’ permission, or is it considered a public kinda dealie? What about in-game chat from things like _Counterstrike_ or _Diablo 2_? LiveJournals? Public message boards where no copyright holder is specified? For that matter, how do I cite these things? My battered, second-hand copy of the MLA handbook is from 1988, so it’s more than a little sketchy about online sources, but even the more recent versions I’ve seen mainly give guidelines for things like websites and newsgroups. In the version of the paper I turned in, I totally gave up on trying to make a “real” bibliography page and just organized the sources (which included Fark, [bash.org](http://bash.org), IRC and [battle.net](http://battle.net) channels, the SDMB and even my mom) in a table. Obviously not gonna work in a published paper. My prof suggested the university’s human research subjects type office, but their website mainly deals with experiments on human subjects (am I really gonna risk violating the Nuremburg code?) and didn’t have anything to say on things like this. So I turn to the wise and all-knowing Teeming Millions for advice. – Dragon “I 4m teh l1ngu1st!!!1!~” blink ---
**Author:** ![shunt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ad7895/32.png) [@shunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shunt)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-internet-research-papers-copyright-law-and-me/169600/2 "2003-04-18T18:46:01Z")
[http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/1.2/inbox/mla\_archive.html](http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/1.2/inbox/mla_archive.html) ---
**Author:** ![XJETGIRLX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9fc29f/32.png) [@XJETGIRLX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XJETGIRLX)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-internet-research-papers-copyright-law-and-me/169600/3 "2003-04-18T18:47:30Z")
I would suggest checking out [LawGirl](http://www.lawgirl.com), which is a site that specializes in electronic media and copyright law. I think you should be able to find a lot of useful information there. ---
**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-internet-research-papers-copyright-law-and-me/169600/4 "2003-04-18T21:08:24Z")
shunt: WOW!