Effectiveness of a release statement?

[berlinlife06]

I think that should "cover" you, but you have to see if the pictures and quotes you use from other people, specifically say that it is copyright protected, or if they also say something like: the use of any material requires the written permission of the owner. That, as far as a I know, is like a double protection authors use, so they can sue whoever didn´t ask for permission... I would be careful with that!

[Domaineer]

I've never been taught in my business classes anything about how to write a letter to demand permission of use. This has always been posted as somewhat of a threat to those who would plagiurize and yet you seldom if ever see a news story or magazine article about Joe Blow from Anywhere USA being sued because he used images on a website or a quote in a book or bought a copy of a sculpture at a garage sale. Truth be told, there are just too many instances of possible plagiarism and too many places to search for breaches of copyright. Unless they are pretty blatant and don't put some sort of acknowledgment or release, I don't think photographers, artists, and writers go around looking to find copyright violators.

[aquariancore]

podcast Wrote:If you put a release statement on your site like: "All copyrighted material on this site remains the property of its original holders."...Wouldn't this legally cover you as far as anything you might use as far as pictures or quotes? I am always careful to put this on my sites if I use graphics or quotes that belong to someone else. I usually also give full credit (names and links) to any materials I use.

I don't think that is a release statement but a terms of service or copyright statement.

[capitalist_junkie]

I agree with aquariancore. A release statement is something which allows you (or a user, or whoever) to WAIVE certain rights. So a release statement for your site would allow people to use your content without permission.

[berlinlife06]

Domaineer Wrote:I've never been taught in my business classes anything about how to write a letter to demand permission of use. This has always been posted as somewhat of a threat to those who would plagiurize and yet you seldom if ever see a news story or magazine article about Joe Blow from Anywhere USA being sued because he used images on a website or a quote in a book or bought a copy of a sculpture at a garage sale. Truth be told, there are just too many instances of possible plagiarism and too many places to search for breaches of copyright. Unless they are pretty blatant and don't put some sort of acknowledgment or release, I don't think photographers, artists, and writers go around looking to find copyright violators.

N o, most of the time the artist don't look for it, but it happened to me! I wrote articles for a magazine, and the contract said that they had the rights of that material they published, not me anymore. Well, one day my editor calls me asking me if I know certain woman in Spain that I gave her my articles, and I told her the truth, I didn't know her. Turns out that the woman wrote a book and used a couple of my articles and quoted me, but didn't give any credit to the magazine! Well, my editor was pretty mad! I didn't really care, but asked a friend in Spain to find the book, and she later told me what was written. I didn't have a problem, but my editor and the people at the magazine were very mad. I don't know what they did after that.

[capitalist_junkie]

It's really frustating that if you publish anything, it becomes the property of the publisher, not you, even though you created it. I know a professor who had to ask her publisher's permission to photocopy portions of a textbook SHE WROTE and use it in her class. I think that we really need to rethink copyright law . . .

[aquariancore]

Well in a way it is like a car except you get creator's credit.

[berlinlife06]

capitalist_junkie Wrote:It's really frustating that if you publish anything, it becomes the property of the publisher, not you, even though you created it. I know a professor who had to ask her publisher's permission to photocopy portions of a textbook SHE WROTE and use it in her class. I think that we really need to rethink copyright law . . .

See, I went to college in Venezuela, and over there it is difficult to find many books, because they are hard to find and very expensive. So, it was a common practice of professors to bring a book and send it to the copying department, which was run by one or two full time technicians, and students. Then, they'll make copies of the book for the whole group, or only the chapters that we were studying. We paid for the copies and it was like a very low fee extra. Basically it was very cheap and the only way to actually be able to study with what we had. The copyright law over there was pretty much non existing!