copying & pasting content onto the board

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MikeUMA
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copying & pasting content onto the board

Post by MikeUMA » Sun Apr 01, 2012 10:33 pm

Since we've had issues with this subject lately, let me be very clear...

Please do not copy & paste content from other sources into posts you make here.

This has been a long-standing rule here. I used to have informal rules, then about 4 years ago I wrote 'em up.
http://umasshoops.com/board/rules.htm
This is nothing that long-timers don't know, but a good reference for rookies.

Copying & pasting content from other sources may be violations of copyrights from the publisher. Whether or not a link is included to the source is irrelevant.

Especially sensitive is content from subscription-based sites (for example: ESPN Insider) where you have to pay to read the material. If you copy & paste their content here, you're doing multiple things wrong:
1. Violating copyrights.
2. Stealing paid content and giving it away for free.
3. Opening yourself up to legal action.
4. Possibly opening me (as the host of this board) to legal action.

Think of it in terms of a guy in an apartment building, breaking into the cable television panel, taking one legitimate feed and splitting it to the rest of the building so everyone else gets it for free. Bad idea.

If you see content you like somewhere, you are free to summarize what you saw in a post on the board. Then, include a link to the source if people want to read further.
Example:
I saw an Andy Katz article where this 7-footer is considering coming to UMass. Check it out on ESPN. http://espn.go.com/collegerecruting/bignews.htm

Someone had mentioned this being an issue of "using up my bandwidth". That is incorrect. When you post a message here, you're only consuming a miniscule amount of bandwidth, and a miniscule amount of storage space on my host server. The issue is the copyright violations.

Any questions? Please ask. But I hope this is the last time I have to repeat myself on this subject.

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ibleedmaroon413
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Post by ibleedmaroon413 » Sun Apr 01, 2012 10:48 pm

i get what ur saying mike and ill follow the rules,but just one thing,if im a paid insider and paid for that info isnt it my choice if i want to share it with others,either way sorry for the misunderstang
“Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.”

eXelwood
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Post by eXelwood » Mon Apr 02, 2012 8:35 am

^Short answer no. That info is like a song or movie DVD or ebook, you bought a copy for your personal use. You do not have the right to publicly share that.

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MikeUMA
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Post by MikeUMA » Tue Apr 03, 2012 9:34 am

ibleedmaroon413: like eXelwood said, no, it is not.

I understand your enthusiasm, but imagine you're a music journalist who got an early release of an artist's new album. What you're doing here is kind of like thinking "hey, wouldn't the fans on that groupie website love to hear this?" So you post those music files onto the web and make them available for free to anyone to download. See the problem?

You're taking copyrighted content and making it available for free to anyone else who sees it here. Now the fact that you paid for it is irrelevant, you're still violating the publisher's rights. When you buy a subscription, you buy it for your own personal use. Your paid subscription does not give you the right to distribute that content anywhere else.

You can very briefly summarize what you saw, and provide a link to where you found it, but that's as far as it can go.

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