Respecting Copyright on the UUBF-L

Legally you need to document where a text came from. If it's on a publicly accessible website, give the URL, title of the page, and date you accessed it. If it's on another list, give the name of the list, who sponsors it, location of a website which enables one to join it, date and title of the message.

If it's in print, give the name of the publication, the publisher, the date of publication, and page numbers.

However, even after you've done all that, if you do not have permission it is still illegal to quote the whole article (or large parts of it), and the UUA as well as you can be sued for plagiarism. You must excerpt small parts. If you comment on the author's words when you quote them, you are allowed more length. (Unfortunately there are few hard rules, it's a matter of the court's discretion if the publisher takes issue with you.)

So the best policy is to report on a piece, quoting small parts, and mentioning what ideas in the rest of it you think are important — but talking about them from your point of view, not simply repeating the author's.

It's frustrating to have a really good piece of information, and a place you want to share it where people can benefit from it, and not be allowed to simply make it available. A lot of people are doing it on the Web. But it's creating a lot of suffering for authors, who don't get very well paid for their work to begin with. We need to act more responsibly.

For more information on our Code of Courtesy and Kindess, see...

• Some Original Texts on the Right Speech at Access to Insight
• The Value of Rules and Kindness — thoughts from list manager Sam.
• Right Speech as a Dance: suggestions from UUBF-L members on how to handle conflict on list.
• Gurus, Professors and Prophets: why certain behaviors are inappropriate on list. By UUBF-L member George Buchanan.
• Writing as Practice
• Electronic Right Speech
• The UUA Email List User's Guide: Rules for Participating