Posting News/400 code on a listserver

Toeard the end of June, a question popped up as to whether we would be 
voilating copyright laws is we posted News/400 code.  I asked the question 
of News/400 and found out that it is a copyright violation.  The best 
thing to do is to post a link to their site rather than post the code. 
 For those interested, Dale gave me a link to the Library of Congress and 
their copyright page: http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/faq.html  Also, 
here's my original question to News/400 and Dale's response:


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Buck Calabro [SMTP:mcalabro@commsoft.net]
> Sent: Tuesday, June 30, 1998 11:38 AM
> To:   'webmaster@news400.com'
> Subject:      Posting News/400 code on a listserver
>
> Hi!
>   Love the magazine; I don't think you should own a /400 without a
> subscription.  Likewise, the web site is an invaluable way to get at
> the
> source code featured in articles.  Sometimes, you have no need for an
> article or code fragment until years after the article appears.  Then,
> you can hit the web site and voila!
>
> Recently, a poster to one of the listservers posted an article
> reference,
> but declined to post the code because of concerns over the copyright
> issues.  What is the official policy on posting code that was
> published in
> News/400 magazine?  I would have thought that if the code is posted in
> it's entirety (including the copyright notices) that it would be in
> compliance with the copyright regulations, but one can never be too
> sure!

In answer to your inquiry, posting copyrighted material --
even when the copyright notice is included -- requires explicit
permission of the copyright owner. (The exception is the case of
"fair use," which is limited to small excerpts used for literary
criticism or in news stories.) When we are the owner,
we usually give permission, provided proper attribution is stated.
However, we sometimes hold only a copyright to publish something once in
our magazine and Website, but not to republish (i.e., "first rights").
This means that we cannot always give permission; the person to whom the
rights reverted must give permission. The easiest way to avoid having to
contact us or another copyright owner is simply to publish a pointer to
the code published at news400.com. Please contact me if you would like
further clarification.

Dale Agger
Editorial Director,
NEWS/400 and news400.com


Buck Calabro
Commsoft, Albany, NY
mailto:mcalabro@commsoft.net


>
> Buck Calabro
> Commsoft, Albany, NY
> mailto:mcalabro@commsoft.net


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