Copyright

[Kev Lewis]

From:
New Wildlife Reviews Section

"If you fancy helping to populate the review sections, the best thing to do is visit a publisher/manufacturer's website and copy all of their info for lots of products straight into the 'Add a product' form"

This is copyright theft Stuart, adding links to their info pages is ok but copying the information into here is a breach of the copyright laws

[StuartDH]

Hi Kev,

When we looked into it a while back we found that the info in a book's synopsis and product descriptions etc wouldn't really be affected by copyright. It's along the same lines as a press release, which can also be copied and distributed verbatim.

Copyright doesn't apply to an idea or facts, it covers the expression of the idea, so facts about a product's details don't apply. Also, under the terms of 'fair use' it could be considered news reporting.

I'll double-check, but I think it's also very unlikely that anyone would want to prosecute us for displaying info about their products.

Stu

[Kev Lewis]

Hi Stuart, I don't disagree with your comments and would be surprised if anyone considered prosecution for what is effectively free advertising of their products. However, you only need one company to see it as a breach of copyright and the site will be in deep doo doo. When you get into the area of product reviews by 3rd parties permission would be required.

[StuartDH]

I've split the thread to keep the other one on track and I'll get in touch with some lawyers, but I think we're pretty much covered by Copyright's fair use policies.

The information provided by the manufacturers/publishers falls under literary works, but copyright law's 'fair dealing' provisions allow for copying work for criticism and news reporting.

If a copyright lawyer is reading this then it would be great if you could get in touch to give a bit more clarification on the subject.

Stuart

[eeyore]

I'm not a lawyer stu but my understanding is that if you put it in quotes and acknowledge the source you cant be accused of copyright theft as this is about representing some one elses work as your own.

My only worry about reviews would be slander /liable action is someones product gets slated, but so long as we say we are only expressing an opinion not stating a fact then we have nowt to worry about on that score either.

I would be interested to know what your lawyers said ?

[Boddie]

Surely we all review products from time to time on here anyway. Cameras often get a thumbs up and some have reported problems. Surely this is free speech. I can't see how reviews differ