Tuesday, July 26, 2011

A Note to Readers

Hello.  I don't step out from this side of the curtain too often, but I wanted to make regular readers of this blog aware of a slight change in format going forward.  Yesterday I received a notice from Google regarding possible copyright infringement for something I had posted several weeks ago.  After reading the notice, examining the post and spending time on the chillingeffects.org web site I have to assume the issue involves reproduction of an original article in greater length than the originating source intended (although this is never explicitly stated).

I've posted articles like this before (not being clear on the finer details of copyright law), hoping to enhance continuity and readibility, and to help readers avoid having to contend with different formats, typefaces and sometimes even inoperative urls.  Sources are always credited with a link at the end of each post so that interested readers can see an article in its original context - along with other stories, charts, tables, pictures, etc. that might not have been included due to my limited formating abilities.

However, in terms of copyright liability those efforts appear to be insufficient.  So, from now on only a portion of an article will be displayed, along with a link to the "heart" of the article as it appears at it's original source (although, what constitutes "heart" is also very much a subjective matter). Hopefully this will keep everything safe and above board and not be too much of an inconvenience.

If anyone is interested, I encourage you to visit the chillingeffects.org website and examine the copyright FAQ in detail.  And, if there are any copyright lawyers in the Duck Soup community that can shed further light on this matter, please feel free to contact me.  Even with the format change, I hope you will continue to stop by and enjoy this blog.  Your visits mean a lot to me (and, I hope, the sources that contribute so much to our understanding of the world we live in).  Thank you.

markk