Did I do bad?
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I think I may have committed a huge faux pas, but I’m not sure. Surely someone will be able to explain the protocol or ethic around this: I have been using some of my reader’s comments on my book blog to help promote the book at other sites. It just occurred to me that this may be considered copy theft. I haven’t asked their permission to use their comments since I figured what they had to say became public information as soon as they posted. I do include their names with links to their blogs/sites/etc so thought it would also help them. But maybe using them is considered, at the very least, a breach of etiquette and, at the other end of the spectrum, purely theft. Did I do bad?
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Unfortunately the ignorance and misinformation about copyright and fair use has escalated as the numbers of content thieves and e-beggars has dramatically increased. Bloggers are expected to be able to sort facts from fiction, so if you are a newcomer becoming familiar with copyright law is part of the territory. This post lays out the basics about copyright that all bloggers should be aware of. http://onecoolsite.wordpress.com/2009/02/05/copyright-basics-for-bloggers/
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This is from the Electronic Frontier Foundation:
“When a person enters comments on a blog for the purpose of public display, he is probably giving an implied license at least for that display and the incidental copying that goes along with it. If you want to make things clearer, you can add a Creative Commons license to your blog’s comment post page and a statement that by posting comments, writers agree to license them under it.”
http://www.eff.org/issues/bloggers/legal/liability/IP
The general rule is once a comment has been left, it’s yours to do with as you please — as long as there’s no attempt to modify it as to slander or libel the person leaving the comment.
In the future, however, you may want to make your comment policy known — maybe in the sidebar, or at the end of the post — so people understand their comments could be used elsewhere.
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In my opinion, making it known that you may include comments around the web and print to promote the book will INCREASE the number of comments.
But I can tell you from experience that even if you do that, someone somewhere will be upset, because someone, somewhere is always upset. A friend of mine is a professional society photographer at parties; all the people he takes pictures of are posing for the pictures happily, mostly to get their pictures in the paper, and yet he still routinely gets takedown requests. If you simply comply and take it down, there should be no further fallout and certainly no legal issues.
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The copyright status of a comment is murky at best. Good advice above; I’ll add only that it’s always best to carefully cite and acknowledge anything you copy, and provide a link to the original if you can. That won’t guarantee that you’re in the clear, but failing to acknowledge copied material will guarantee that you’re not.
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