In reference to say, a math book, if I were to post a math problem from my Calculus book, can a website be sued for that?
ie, If I went to section 10.5 of Calculus: Early Transcendentals by James Stewart and pulled out question #43 and posted it somewhere requesting help...
Is that illegal on the website side? If I did this on BYOND, could BYOND potentially get in trouble?
If you took the book and photo copied and/or copied and pasted parts of it to your own website then yes they could. Now lets not be stupid. If you took 1 problem and added it to a website asking for help they wouldn't give a shit. But if you took an entire section and posted it on your website to explain how to do a problem then yes they would sue you.
Edit: I know personally that you can not even photocopy sections of the book to give to your class if you are a teacher. They want you to use there own material and do not want reproductions of there stuff just floating around for free. | |
Right. That's the issue I was having with it too - I feel it is, even if it's just questions (which are technically just examples and hardly "content"), still copyright infringement should there be a multitude of the questions on the site. However, because there is the debate that they are so small and hardly considered content, I question where the line is drawn.
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@ Galactic Soldier: Report them to the company that makes the book. They will take action quickly. XD
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@Cation: I think they don't care about each individual problem only because it is so small that they can't really prove they were the ones who made it (Unless it is a word problem or something specific to what they are teaching) However, if you start taking word for word their examples or explanations. Or if you copy their test questions from the book and start giving them out then you have infringed on the copyright. Alot of times the books will say something like (This information is not to be redistributed or copied in anyway). But for the most part it is really hard to determine how to much is to much and what you can get away with because there isn't a list of do's and dont's.
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Fair use allows copyrighted material to be used for educational uses.
Copying parts of a Math book to learn from it or to teach people would be considered fair use, as it is being used for learning. | |
An interesting, but idiotic question. Copyright isn't the same for everything. Go to the back/front of the book and read the copyright labels. Then find Fun's copyright page. They should be very different =/
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The Magic Man's response is the most useful and interesting... I will definitely be looking into that. Darwin, you clearly misunderstood the question. It's really not idiotic, just a bit out of context - this has no relation to BYOND.
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I wouldn't give a crap if I were you. There is no way you'd get sued for something like that. There's not a chance you'd get sued for owning a BYOND fangame game, either, unless you ignore the license holder's C&D letters (should there be any).
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Oi, sorry Caution :c
Still, even if it has nothing to do with Byond, you were kinda comparing the two. With a Math Textbook, it would be used for educational purpouses, so using a problem or two to get help/ represent a section of the book wouldn't be a probelm. Taking whole sections/articles and making copies of these pages/putting them up on the internet would be illegal, since there would be free copies of their work "floating" around :c Its kinda the same thing with BYOND and Fun. Its ok to make anime games if you're a fan, but its not ok if you use their graphics, their characters (and the character's names) and even the name itself. Ex: DBZ. It is ok for some DBZ games to exist, like the RP Dragonball games where you make your own character and level up effeciently, having little to no relative storyline to the original series EXCEPT for time periods. (I.E Being a survivor of the future android saga and trying to find others) Ex: Naruto. Since its not owned by Fun and its company isn't looking into BYOND Naruto (and bleach) games, all the little noobers will camp on those games. But there be a problem: Why not make your own, original game? Why must you take/base your games on other people's COPYIRGHTED work? A: People are lazy. In conclusion, Caution, copyright is a complicated system of ownerships, patents, and lots of blah blah blah. | |
Considering BYOND got in trouble for intellectual property theft on user submitted content, I can't see how this isn't a legitimate question.
I understand a single question isn't a big deal, but the reason moreso resides in if there was a database full of these questions. What happens then?