an idea about after leaving comments
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From the part of the world I come, cyber laws would be the last thing that I would be scared of (there are plenty others to be scared of)but it has got me thinking whose property does a comment become?
I feel that editing should be limited to deleting out portions that are unacceptable and that there should be no rewording (newspapers and magazine usually say that the letters to them maybe edited for brevity and space).
There’s this other thing as well: let’s say ‘a’ comments to a post and speaks in favor of a particular ideology/thought and another person ‘b’ responds by (i) attacking ‘a’ personally and (ii) writing in favor of another ideology that ‘b’ believes in. Deleting the entire comment of ‘b’ might make ‘b’ feel that you are biased in your views, support a’s views and that you are unable to accept alternative views (even if you don’t believe in either ideology ‘a’ or ‘b’). What does one do in such a case?
drmike- can we discuss these issues, as we presently are, in this support forum?
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kashmir: maybe you could try editing b’s comment so that whatever he has said in reference to a that is inappropriate be edited out – that way at least you preserve his opinion / ideology. you could also paraphrase it, and make a note that you have edited the comment.
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kashmir – As vivian has pointed out becoming an editor places one in a position alongside with the author in the law. Becoming an editor can also place one in a position of replacing the author.
In order to edit one must make a value judgment and one can’t do that without coming from a place of bias. There is no such thing as an objective editor. This is true even if the bias is simply one of not allowing obscenities to appear in a comment on one’s blog, let alone, actually removing content of modifying content.
britgirl has raised the point that she doesn’t even correct spelling errors lest this put her in the position of becoming a co-author or editor. This is the cautious approach but still does not provide full protection from the long arm of the law in Canada.
At one newspaper I used to sell stories to the policy was “we will not edit but will instead return any submission containing oscentities,and/or material that tends to defame the character of another person or appears to be motivated by malice”. This policy came about as a result of a libel case that encompassed newspaper’s owner, publisher and the editor(who edited) a letter to the editor without the writer’s express prior permission.
I believe in the future we’ll be seeing lots of court cases and lots of confusing court decisions (1) because of the overlapping jurisdictions and (2)because of the instanteous distribution of online materials.
kashmir you live in a very troubled area of the world where the life of reporters is at risk. Why increase your personal risk and compromise your own personal saftey, (there is no true anonymity in the blogosphere) when instead you can choose to return the comment and ask for it to be re-submitted in a less inflamatory form? By the time the party who sent it has a chance to reconsider that party may not choose to submit it again but would that really be a great loss?
Be cautious my friend as coyotes are always hunted no matter which country they dwell in.
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drmike- can we discuss these issues, as we presently are, in this support forum?
I have no issue with them as long as they don’t turn nasty or I’m told otherwise by a staff member.
I’m staying out of it though. Doing webhosting, I get my share of lawsuits and court orders. Always win though as I do a large amount of butt covering that I learned many years ago. :)
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Speaking of butts – my relatives in Edmonton are weeping and whining today – North Carolina kicked butt and took home the Stanley Cup. :D
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I guess Canadians aren’t all that when it comes to hockey. :)
But this is off topic.
-dr(in Charlotte)mike
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That’s a wonderful suggestion timethief. Returning the comment and asking the person to resubmit is the best course one can take and I shall follow this policy on my blog from now on. Thank you!
One can also tell him/her that there will no discussions in this regard presuming the person might want to to justify his comment.
drmike how about passing on some learning to us newbies:)
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drmike how about passing on some learning to us newbies:)
That’s what I try to do here. :)
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drmike – I know kashmir well enough to say I’m sure he said that with a big grin on his face :D You do a great job.
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I’m wondering why he or she is calling themselves a newbie when they’ve been here for over 5 months. :)
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Ahhh yes but when you live in the mountains of kashmir in a hostel just how frequently can you actually get an internet connection and make a post may be a consideration.;)
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As timethief said you are indeed doing a great job. One of the reason Wp is great is becasue of the support you and all other members provide.
The more I read about blogging, the more I am like :O and the more I feel like a newbie.
timethief guys (hint drmike)like me (away from Kashmir) wish we were in Kashmir. I am far far away from it and always hear the mountains of Kashmir calling me back. And I guess we have diverged a lot from the topic.
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Hello all – I read up a bit about Canadain copyright law.I think we all need to be savvy about copyright, since we are all by virtue of posting, creators of original material. Remeber ignorance of the law is no excuse… someone could still sue you for copyright infringement even if you didn’t know. Briefly –
From a copyright point of view you should be aware of the following –
Most material available on the Internet is protected by copyright. This includes text ( e.g.postings to newsgroups, email messages – and I would imagine blogs)images, photographs, music, video clips and computer software.Under the Copyright Act, reproduction or unauthorized use of a protected work are currently infringements. Therefore, reproduction of any work, or a substantial part of any work on the Internet,would infringe copyright unless you have the permission of the owner. [The permission has to be in writing].
Copyright protects the way in which information is expressed. The information itself is not protected by copyright. Re-stating ideas, facts or information in your own words in not copyright infringement [so, editing comments, posts etc is, unless the author has given you permsission to do so.] Read on…
Where a work has been placed on the Internet with the message that it can be freely copied, there is an actual licence to copy the work. SOmetimes the terms of the licence is subject to conditions. Common conditions are that the posting cannot be used for commercial purposes, must be circulated in its entirety, cannot be used out of context, and cannot be edited or re-formatted. If you abide by the conditions, you may copy the work without infringing copyright.
Source: Excerpt taken from Copyright Matters!
If you read more about copyright (and though it is complex there are some good links, which I will post on my blog at some point) you will learn that there is ongoing work questionning the appropriateness of the rules in Copyright law, in Canada, and other countries in the world with regard to uses of copyright materials from the Internet and asking for guidance. So some rules might change. But they haven’t yet!
Hope this helps. -
this thread has unravelled into three themes
sulz’s original on responding to comments, editing commnets/defamation ,and copywrite – what do you say drmike shall we move this to the unofficial forum and split it into 3 or if required more threads? -
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Most material available on the Internet is protected by copyright.
*ALL* information is protected by copyright in some forum or another.
It’s more of a matter if what you use is covered under fair use and/ or if you have permission to use that content.
I get about a dozen “cease and desist” notices a month with my webhosting.
It’s like those Diet Coke and Mentos videos floating around. While the redos are fine, we’re finding the original posted on Google and YouTube. That’s not cool since the original creators have very specifically stated that copying to those services isn’t allowed and YouTube is banning them. (Google isn’t though from what I understand)
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drmike – excuse me for asking but in reference to the 5 months remark my list of things I have yet to learn let alone “master” is quite long so I’m wondering where you think the “newbie” cut off date falls. I’ve been trying to learn html off the web but I’m working from Thursdays to Mondays in the pottery, and I teach on Monday mornings and Wednesday afternoons. I’m finding that my time is really stretched right now. I started my first blog on April 8th and my second one a month later – am I looking at a deadline? %)
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WHEW! I’m spending a lot of time blogging, reading forum posts, FAQ, documentation, researching, and learning html.
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And you’re answering questions here as well. That’s the best way to learn how to do things – explaining it to others. That’s one of the reasons why I spend the time here and at other support forums.
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