Posting other peoples work

[DerekW]

Whilst trawling through my store of XM files I discovered a posting from Noz on the 2.5D turbocharger. This is an excellent write up and I'm sure it's equally applicable to the 2.0TCT and possibly the 2.1D as well.

It's too good to disappear into limbo. Noz obviously intended it for general release, otherwise he wouldn't have published it.

Would there be any objection if I re-issued it on this forum, with full acknowledgement to the authorship? - If necessary I'll shout it in the largest capitals I can find!

What do you think?

And whilst we're at it, how about all the other gems of information (not opinion) that are available? I seem to recall John (XMexclusive) writing about this but my feeling is as above - the items were intended for public consumption by the authors so as long as full acknowledgement is given what's the problem?

For current members of this forum it's easy. I could, for example, email Jorgy and ask " Is it OK to republish your writeup on the front suspension damper valves?". But the problem arrises when the author is not a member of the new forum and is consequently out of touch.

Derek

[Jan-hendrik]

I think people posted on the forum to share their knowledge with others without restrictions. Nothing posted is subject to any copyright laws. Even crediting the contributors for borrowing their material is not strictly required, but common courtesy suggests one does. I would say, go ahead, copy, share and preserve.

[robert_e_smart]

I agree,

These forums are for everyone to benefit from, even if the originators are no longer members.

[Dean]

Hi all

I remember the article well, its the one about the seized waste gate isnt it?
While i do agree totaly with what you have all said it would always be worth running it by Ciaran first, it is after all his Forum.
Is nobody in contact with Noz these days then?

D

[Ciaran]

Hi folks,

Well to elaborate on this matter, I personally have no problem with content being posted, however with regard to stuff that is clearly marked as being copyright to someone else, then there in theory, could possibly be legal issues if it were posted without the owners permission. That's not very likely though unless it was some kind of commercial material like music or a movie, though in theory it could still happen.

What's more of an issue, is internet etiquette, in that (legal issues aside), it would be considered very bad manners for us to continue to host material which blatantly belonged to someone else without acknowledging the ownership, and indeed if we failed to remove a piece of content after the owner had complained that they didn't want it on here.

Those are two sets of circumstances, in one of which I could think we'd have a problem. In the case of Noz's articles, for example, where they're clearly marked as copyright, I would want to obtain his permission first before posting anything here.
With other items, for example things which people have found on the internet, been sent etc, where the original owner maybe isn't known, or they have clearly been left for public consumption, I would have no problem with those being posted here. If at some point in the future the owner did surface, and commented on the fact their material was here, then we'd have to address that if and when it occurred, but I wouldn't foresee a massive problem. There has to be some assumption made that if you post something on the public internet and don't clearly mark it as copyrighted or not to be distributed, then it inevitably will be reproduced elsewhere by someone.

As for ownership of this forum, whilst I provide the infrastructure, and own the physical computer that it runs on, my stake really does stop there. This is very much a community effort, and without everyone here posting and making valuable contributions, it would be nothing more than a database and a website. I guess everyone owns their own posts and retains the rights to those, but tis a joint effort

Ciarán

[DerekW]

You're right Dean, that's the one.

Ciaran, I hadn't noticed the copyright symbol alongside his name, thanks for pointing it out - must try harder . Still it lets me off the hook, I was having difficulty in transferring it across to the forum, it's a pdf file and all my attempts had failed, just shows how ignorant I am about basic computer operations.

Derek

[Dieselman]

How does the law stand with copywrited web documents? Is it that you can link to it, is it that you can copy it across as long as you acknowledge the original writer and don't try to pass it off as your own work, or is it that you may not reproduce it at all?

Anybody know?