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Fair Use Copyright Law
Don’t Overstep the Fair Use Copyright Law
Many people are interested in the fair use copyright law. The fair use copyright law enables people to use portions of material that is copyrighted for the purposes of criticism or as commentary. The hard part for many people is understanding what is permissible under the fair use copyright law and what is not permissible. Anyone who writes or publishes should brush up on what is allowed and what is not allowed. Using another person’s words to make news reports, to use as a comment or criticism or to use for research, scholarship, or for educational uses that are nonprofit are generally considered fair use. In these instances, the fair use copyright law allows one person or author to make use of another person or author’s work without asking permission to do so. In situations that do not fall within these specifications you are probably violating someone’s copyright if you use their work – especially if you are using another person’s work for economic or commercial gain.
When you are trying to see if you can use another’s words, you should keep a few things in mind. The answer to the following questions will help you gage whether you would be violating a copyright. First, are you transforming someone else’s work or are you copying it? Second, are you going to be making any financial gains from your work that would compete with the original copyright holder? Third, do you have the author’s permission to quote their work? Just because you list the author and give credit to him or her does not protect you from infringing upon someone’s copyright. Fourth, how much of the original author’s work are you using? If you are using a substantial amount of another’s work, you are probably in direct violation of their copyright. Many publishing companies have set rules on how much material they will allow to be quoted in other sources. Some of these ranges start at 100 words or less. However, there are truly no standards to go by, so be careful. You can not assume that keeping your copying fewer than 50 words will allow you to pass under the radar – especially if the original piece is hovering around 125 words itself! Lastly, what portion of another’s work are you using? If it is the meat of the book and the most important part of the book, you are probably in direct violation of the owner’s copyright.
With a little common sense it is not hard to decide if you are violating someone’s copyright. People who are truly interested in staying within the guidelines of the fair use copyright law usually do a good job of doing so. Many people push the fair use copyright law right up to the line, while others will blatantly cross over it without giving a second thought to the repercussions. When these people are summoned to court to answer for their vagrant disregard for the property and copyright of another they are usually sorry. Sorry they got caught! It is very important that people who take advantage of the fair use copyright law are held accountable for their actions. Without accountability many more people would follow in their footsteps and use another’s works as their own.
Send Free Cyber Greetings to Friends and Family with These Popular Sites Are you looking for a fast, fun and easy way to stay in touch with family? If so, consider sending free cyber greetings to your best friends and family members by taking advantage of the services offered by many fine e-greeting card services. Here are some reasons why you should consider sending ecards, and where you can find the very best in electronic greetings. Why Should You Consider Electronic Greeting Cards? The traditionalists among us will complain the World Wide Web is quickly eating away at the last traces of decorum and good manners. They will suggest that there is no replacement for the thoughtful and handwritten stationary note. While it is true that there is no equivalent to the handwritten note, it does not mean that you should exclude electronic greeting cards from your social life. Electronic greeting cards can actually be quite helpful in establishing friendships, keeping in touch and sending out a last-minute greeting. In truth, electronic greeting cards may be the saving grace of the modern electronic age. Sending an electronic greeting card is just casual enough to keep you touch, and just formal enough to send a meaningful greeting to someone that you really care about. When it comes to keeping in touch with the people you love, you may want to send out a paper greeting card. However, for those occasions where the important occasion has slipped your mind, an electronic greeting card is an easy way to tell someone that you have not forgotten about him or her. More Reasons Why You Should Send Electronic Greeting Cards Besides being a very quick and easy way to stay in touch, electronic greeting cards are also a great way to help the environment. As more of us move towards an environmentally sustainable future, you may want to send your environmentally conscious friend or family member an electronic greeting card. This is a fun and simple way to save paper and resources. Digital Greeting Cards are Fun and Easy Free virtual postcards are an easy way to keep in touch with friends and family. How do these virtual postcard services work? Usually, you simply select the card that you want from an assortment of electronic designs. Many websites even allow you to select various features of your card. You can often choose your own image, music, background music and other special design features. Then, all you have to do is simply type in your own personalized greeting. Then simply type in your recipient's email address, and wait to hear back from them. Your recipient will either receive an email message with an in-text card greeting, or a link to view their virtual postcard. Where Can You Find the Web's Best Electronic Greeting Cards Services? Fortunately, email has allowed us to become closer to own another, and electronic greeting cards are an easy and fun way to stay in touch. There are many fine websites that allow you to send and receive electronic greeting cards for free. Here is just a brief sampling of the web's best free virtual greeting card services. These include FreeWebCards.com, AllFreeGreetingCards.com, Greetings Island, E-Greetingz.com, Virtual Gravy Greetings, Electronic-Greetings.com, AAAPostCards.com, Radio Cards, E-Cards-Greetings.com, and CyberKisses. What to Look for in a Virtual Greeting Card Service First, although many greeting card services offer paid services, there are still plenty of free greeting card services to choose from. If personalization is important to you, choose a greeting card service that offers a large selection of cards and that allows you to choose from a selection of fonts, colors, music and other template and personalization choices. Assistance on Filling Out those Online Forms for the Free Stuff So, you’ve found a great freebie online, or a free trial of some service you have been wondering about, but the form you have to fill out has left you scratching your head. Sometimes the paperwork involved in getting some free stuff can seem a bit like applying for a mortgage or filling out your life insurance policy, and in fact, many people decide the freebie isn’t worth it after all when they’re facing down an intimidating form to fill out. The good news is that you don’t have to miss out on the free stuff just because the form leaves you a little perplexed. This guide will walk you through filling out these online applications, even if this is your first trip around the Internet. Once you get the hang of things, you’ll be filling out these forms in no time at all. First things first: once you have the form open on the screen in front of you, you have to move your mouse so that the cursor sits in the very first empty space on the form, and then click the mouse once. Some forms will automatically place your cursor there when you open them, but if you are not sure, moving the mouse there and clicking won’t hurt anything at all. All you have to do now is start typing, filling in the information they ask for in that field. Filling out the form the entire form is merely a repetition of this process. Of course, you have to be able to move between the fields easily so you can fill in the rest of the form. On some online forms, the cursor will move automatically when you have finished filling in a field, which makes life easy on you, but others do not. To manually move between fields, all you have to do is either hit the “tab” key on your keyboard or use your mouse to move the cursor to the next field, just like you did to start typing in the first field. Hitting “enter” may seem like a natural thing to do, and while it can work on some forms, other forms will submit themselves when you hit enter, meaning you will have submitted a blank form. It is best to stick to “tab” or your mouse to be on the safe side. This technique should allow you to navigate a freebie form fairly easily. There are a few other things you may see on a form that you have to know how to handle. You may be asked to “check” a box or indicate in a little circle (called a radio button) that you accept the company’s privacy policy or some other thing. To do this, all you have to do is move your cursor over the box or circle and click – the check or the dot will then appear. This can also be handy when forms ask for a billing address and a shipping address - if they are the same, you can tick a box stating so and avoid having to type the same thing twice. If a form has several pages, be careful to save your changes for every page as you move along. Usually there will be a button to click at the bottom of the page that allows you to save the work you have done. Especially long forms usually have some kind of side navigation that lets you skip around from section to section instead of moving through the form systematically – this can be helpful if you need to find some info for one section, but want to take care of all of the other work first. Most forms are reasonably user friendly and contain info to walk you through the process. If you get stuck, look for a help icon on the page – this info should clear up any questions you may have. |