8th Day, Write or Wrong: Copyright

Andras

Can we have a quick summary of what the Ship's copyright rules are as regards contributors' own material posted on the various Fora?

The rules regarding third parties' materials (fair use, and so on) seem clear enough, but perhaps here too a restatement would be helpful.

sionisais

Here is the situation in the UK, as stated by the Government's own agency handling Intellectual Property Exceptions to Copyright

Note that this is applicable to the UK. Other countries may have more or less generous provisions and there are international treaties for this.

Schroedingers Cat

I have asked for an official answer on this, so that everyone is clear.

Rossweisse

Thanks, SC.

Ruth

This is a question we'll need Simon to answer definitively. For the moment, I'll say that if memory serves, the Ship copyrights everything posted on the boards, but people are free to re-use their own work in other venues.

Simon

Our old rule was that copyright remained the property of the person posting, but Ship of Fools reserved the right to reproduce or quote posts freely without seeking permission from the poster. This meant that what you write and post remains yours entirely, to do with as you will, here or elsewhere. But it also gave Ship of Fools the right to re-use posts.

We originally planned that we might produce books or other media which would do this, but it's never actually happened. The only times posts have been re-used (I think) is during presentations of Ship of Fools before a live audience, or in radio interviews, and in these, we've quoted short snippets of what people have posted here.

The private boards are different. What is posted on the private boards has always remained (and will always remain) private and confidential, and Ship of Fools does not republish this material.

I've put the first para of this post in the past tense as we're reviewing the policy as part of our GDPR work. But I'm interested in how shipmates see it, so do let us know. There's no intention for Ship of Fools to ever claim copyright in the writings of shipmates.

Andras

Thanks, Simon, that's very helpful.

I presume that the old rule about the Ship reproducing and quoting posts at least meant that the OP was given credit for the material that was reused; if that wasn't explicit before, I think it needs to be so now.

Simon

Yes, of course. Sorry, I should have mentioned that.

Rossweisse

Thank you, Simon.