Quote by: yalitldevl

not to be rude Judy but who's planning on monitoring all those that are posted on all the threads everyday... that its done right and in a legal way? You and I and a few others know all too well what a mess this can be. I think we need it clear or not at all

what about if the only thing we change is saying "dont post other photographers work" and leave it at that? Leave all else as is That is the only place we've had this trouble right? photogs?

Yeah I believe you. Another thing Judy, do you believe that posting copyrighted materials is punishable? I'm just wond'ring you know. What punishments will I face if I post something that is copyrighted? How would you know if a material is copyrighted by the way?

Welcome to the forum, ihanna!

I'm not a lawyer. I just did a search with Google for "what is punishment for violation of copyright" and found quite a bit of information. I don't have the expertise to know what is most applicable to our situation - but reading a few of the links should reinforce the fact that it's not a good idea to post copyrighted material without permission.

The short answer as to how to know if something is copyrighted is - if you can't find anything giving permission to post it elsewhere, assume it's copyrighted. Many sites have terms of use, often as a link at the bottom of each page or the bottom of the home page (we do, stating that everything here is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License, which means in somewhat simplified terms that material posted here can be used on non-commercial sites as long as proper attribution is given and the license is included) but the safest thing is to assume material is copyrighted unless you can see that it isn't, or find the rules for posting it elsewhere.

As mentioned earlier, even if there's no copyright symbol, original photographs are always copyrighted unless the photographer releases them to the public domain.

If you have specific questions, I'd recommend talking to a lawyer specializing in copyright law.

Hope this helps - and welcome to the forum!

(PS - Is the quote you use for your signature copyright-free? Or if you have permission from the author to use it, it's a good idea to include "used with permission" and the name of the author. Thanks!)

There is a recent decision by the Federal Court of Canada concerning copyright infringement:
Warman v Fournier

The Court decided that posting a link to a photograph on a website to a photograph on another website is not copyright infringement. However it did not say that it is permissible to copy the actual photograph, only a link.

The Court also decided that it is not copyright infringement for online discussion forums to copy a few paragraphs/excerpts from an article, provided that it is not a "substantial part" of the work, or that the reproduction constitutes "fair dealing" for a purpose such as news reporting, research or private study, criticism or review (s. 29 of the Copyright Act).

An article discussing the implications of this decision for online discussion sites:
http://thetyee.ca/Mediacheck/2012/07/03/News-Links/