Rules for the WIX forum regarding copyright
The Warbirds Resource Group forums are not legally responsible for the writings of its individual members, and thus it is the members responsibility to make sure thier posts are legal in regards to copyright. Regardless, repeated copyright violations will make the forums look bad and will I would ask that we all strive to avoid this! Here are some rough guidelines for copyright:
Every country is different, but there are some general guidelines:
- Copyright on text and drawings/artwork typically expires after 70 years after the creators death.
- Copyright on photographs expires either 50 years after the photo was taken, or 70 years after the photographers death, depending on country.
- Copyright for materials originating from the Third Reich expired when the war ended. All materials produced by the U.S. Governement (including U.S. Army War Photographers) are in the public domain.
- Copyright is granted at the moment of creation and needs not be marked as being under copyright for that protection to exsist. The burden of proof is on the copyright holder but we should respect that and not compel them to have to enforce thier rights. Its just not cool.
- 'Fair use' is a vague concept at best. In General it should be okay to use one or two photos from a book, typically for educational use. More than that is pretty much getting into copyright violation. Regardless, full source disclosure and credit should accompany these items. If not the it is essentially plagarism.
- You can't copyright facts. No matter what, no one may e.g. copyright the technical data of an aircraft. What can be copyrighted is how the information is presented.
In general I do not want to have to create any strict rules on the subject. If a copyright holder requests a picture removed from the forums or even the rest of the site I will see that it is removed. So let's police ourselves and try to honor the rights of the copyright holders.
Thanks, any correction to this information or suggestions for additions would be welcome.
Last edited by
Scott Rose on Sun Dec 03, 2006 9:46 am, edited 1 time in total.