I'm thinking of starting a website putting jokes, pictures and stories.I am hoping to use those that find of the web on other joke sites, picture sites, etc. How do I know what can I or cannot take and put on my site? I'm pretty sure that most of the joke sites do not host their own in-house jokes, but got it somewhere, can i do the same? Tks.
Many of these sites violate copyright law by posting pictures and written material without permission from the original creator. The only way you can avoid breaking the law is to get the permission of the original creator or only use public domain material. You might also be able to use Creative Commons material, but I'm not very familiar with how that works.
hmmm..... does it mean that all the major joke sites are violating copyright? cause i don't see them stating copyright anywhere.....
The second factor that I am aware of is posting a link back to the original source, that would cover you under the fair-use policy.
imnajam: posting a link back to the original source (or copyright holder) does not make something fair-use.
It could be true, but I have heard that if the site doesn't restrict you by putting any specific copyright notice, you may reproduce the content by putting a link back to the original source. Can you support your statement with any link/article (authentic)?
imnajam: Having a copyright notice is irrelevent; any original work is protected by the Copyright Act as soon as it is in a tangable form. Fair-use is an evaluation; it doesn't have fine lines. Copyright lawsuits are filled with people claiming they satisfy fair-use while the other party thinks otherwise. Before you offer any more advice, try googling "What is copyright".
yes, i agree with klimt as i've lawyer friends who have told me the same things so what shld i do? do i really need to ask permission for every single joke i want to put on my site???
I did some research, and found myself misunderstanding. it was actually a fair use policy of a single website which was stating that the content from this site can be copied by putting a functional link back to the source. Thanks for letting me know and correct myself.
IANAL... The reason why the other websites get away with it, is probably because the copyright holder doesn't care or doesn't know his/her work is being used. But if you wanted to be safe with copyright, you'd have to get permission or license each work you wanted to use. Whether you could get away with it would be the risk you would have to take. Keep in mind that by taking pictures and jokes off of other websites you could infringe on the website owners database/compilation of the works.