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Forum copyright?


Jack McKalling

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Hello, I have found a copy of a post from my writing, somewhere on the net.I am claiming the text there, I wish it to be removed, as I wish not to be not credited for any texts I write here.Still I wonder how copyright is handled on these forums, and what my rights are...Can anyone help me?Reference: http://ebookslab.info/free-tutorials/doctype-addition.htmlOriginal: http://w3schools.invisionzone.com/index.ph...st&p=177738*Edit:Another reference of the same post somewhere else: http://www.globberstack.com/Questions/doctype-addition-1/*Edit2:I've edited my name out of the original post, so content scrapers can do whatever they like to the texts now.

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Hello, I have found a copy of a post from my writing, somewhere on the net.I am claiming the text there, I wish it to be removed, as I wish not to be not credited for any texts I write here.Still I wonder how copyright is handled on these forums, and what my rights are...Can anyone help me?Reference: http://ebookslab.info/free-tutorials/doctype-addition.htmlOriginal: http://w3schools.invisionzone.com/index.ph...st&p=177738Edit:Another reference of the same post somewhere else: http://www.globberstack.com/Questions/doctype-addition-1/
what was that!! same thing happend with me some days ago...i found that same topic created by me in w3schools.com was listed in that site (even same text). i was googling on that topic and found that. i was suppose to ask that (i forgot).
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w3schools owner can claim it for breaking copyright i guess. i think that will be more sufficient.

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It doesn't appear that there is a copyright waiver when you sign up or post, so I believe the rights over the content still belong to you and not to W3Schools (this is not legal advice though). Of course, however, W3Schools does not have any obligation, much less so the power, to take down content that infringes on your rights. You could send a nice cease-and-desist notice to that website, but considering how it appears to be an automated content scraper I don't know how effective that would be...

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considering how it appears to be an automated content scraper I don't know how effective that would be...
This. Also you shouldn't worry, look at the sites they are on, some random unvisited sites where their posts aren't even getting attention. To make it worst, one of the sites is a tutorial site and it's posting a question as a tutorial?I don't think you should pursue this as it is just a random post in a forum with not much in it. If you wrote an article on DOCTYPE, that was some of your best work, then yes, by all means go after them, but otherwise it's not worth it.
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So I see. Well my argument is that my name is used, in combination with my company name.Anybody can do anything with the information without knowing it is me. Over here I can just edit or delete it, but not over there.Its just that I want to protect my privacy. For instance, if you google my name, you'll only find posts on forums that I am a member of and my own website, but nobody else. That is not a coincidence...

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If it's on one place, you must think of it as being "everywhere", potentially forever if it's of interest... it's the nature of the internet.Recently, a few weeks before IE9 beta was out, a Microsoft partner released a screenshot of IE9. They took it down in only a few minutes, but how do you think we know about this? The screenshot was copied and distributed to various sites... all in just a few minutes. The partner forgot they signed an NDA for until IE9 beta is released, and despite the fact they had full control on their web site, few minutes were few minutes too much.

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  • 6 months later...

After my recurring check, I've now found Omgili too.This Omgili is some site who claims to be a search engine, and lists more than one of my posts accessible by google search.But this time I know what could be done about it.Omgili says they will obay "/robots.txt", and with a mention of the "omgilibot", I, and I mean W3Schools, could tell Omgili to stop indexing.So this is my question to W3Schools, are you using /robots.txt, and if so, could you modify it to deny Omgili? It's just one bot, but it helps. Maybe we can't take down infringing content, but maybe we can prevent anything further. It's just a "No Entry" sign really, not a lock, so where's the harm in adding it?

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W3Schools isn't the one hosting the forum, it's InvisionZone. You could contact them about it if you're interested.A lot of bot owners who say their bots obey robots.txt are lying. I happened to be receiving a lot of visits from this robot caled "spinn3r." The owners said that the robot obeys robots.txt but it really wasn't, I had to end up denying its access to my host.

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It's fairly possible they lie about robot obedience. But it all seems legitimate, judging the whole website. They themselves mention the robot they're using and how to disable it, and I wouldn't think non ligitimate websites would do that. They're just a website delegating forum posts within their "search platform", and it seems they're just offering a backdoor for those who don't wish to participate in it.Maybe they are lying, but if they are, trying to disable the bot would not hurt anything, right? I see the possibility. My glass is half full :)I forgot how to contact W3Schools though.

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That's what spinn3r said:http://spinn3r.com/robot

Can I tell Spinn3r to stop reading my site?We currently monitor the XML feeds syndicated from your weblog. If you want us to index your feeds (as well as the HTML), let us know. Most people want us to index their site, so this rarely happens.Spinn3r also supports robots.txt, so you can block us this way as well.
W3Schools doesn't control the forums server, you need to contact Invision Power about it.
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I didn't know W3Schools didn't control the server. I assumed the software was installed on their own, but looking at the domain, I should have known this.Contacting Invision Power seems a bit too far for this thing, I guess it would have been okay if W3Schools could have just done this. It doesn't matter though, if you're right, and that is what spinn3r said, Omgili is probably the same.As robot.txt is not a secure lock or a lock at all, if we really wanted to protect our posts here we should look into other means. There is one thing that comes to my mind, but this will probably hurt ourselves also. There is of cource the option to deny public access to the forums, but this means you must register to be able to read, and I think that goes against the spirit of the board. Anything else?

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If the posts are crawl-able by Google and other search engines, there is nothing to stop any site scraping the content.

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No of cource not. I don't mind websites taking my posts, it's my name that was in it.I am glad that my name is an alias in the first place, but it just doesn't feel right that it appears on a site that I've never visited.*Edit:Oh yes, sorry. This contradicts my first post. I just mean that whenever I submit a text that actually has my name in it, I would want the occurance of this text to credit the name. You wouldn't want to be mentioned anywhere without appropriately being addressed.Other than that they can keep my posts, just not those with my name in it or without due credit.Content scrapers probably don't look into copyright notices anyway, and the site about the DOCTYPE post (link in OP), has actually been removed already.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I just read this and decided to Google myself.....Well these scrapper sites are just ridiculous. The wild wild net blah.

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As a matter of interest as Club Secretary and Editor of our local Radio Club, I was obliged to investigate the position regarding use of material from the Internet for our little monthly News Letter. The matter was also discussed in a local Yahoo Arts forum. As a result it was pointed out as shown in http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p13_permission and http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/copyright-internet.htm that we have the strange world wide situation whereby EVERYTHING published on the Internet is supposed to be automatically covered by universal copyright. What then begs the question is why do people publish anything there if they do not want others copying it.This is especially the case when Editors like me wish to obtain permission to republish such material, but as often the case we either cannot identify the email address of the author, or if we do manage we never get a reply. So in addition to obviously publishing the URL of the site involved, we now publish a copy of say my email requesting permission. Since our printer wants all entries some 3 weeks before printing, it must give ample time for an author to respond ! Gordon

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Thanks Sigord.It is indeed a good question why people publish supposedly private material. In the case of my own posts here, I really cannot help it or do anything myself to prevent infringement. I would have a question that I submit to this board for the technical answer it could receive, but my posts are not hidden to the public. W3Schools leaves the forums open for guests to read, as the community here isn't supposed to be closed eventhough individual posts might claim privacy.However, as you've pointed out, (almost) all material on the internet is automatically copyrighted. Should I assume that I do have right to take anyone down? I don't think I have what it takes to do just that, but I don't like to look down either. My request for posts on W3Schools would be that I am properly addressed, accredited, or at all mentioned as the first author, or not to use the posts at all. Eventhough the board is public, as it should remain that way.Hereby aggreed that public material should not be assumed uncopyrighted, for as supposed private content could belong to something bigger that is actually public.Lastly, still the only real thing I think is possible here, that would prevent infringement, would be to require guests to log in before they may read our topics. As is done on closed communities. But should W3Schools do that? Shouldn't our efford be available to new programmers and developers who only want to read up on us?

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I really don't see any problems with anyone copying anything on this forum. This is a public forum, if you don't want something publicly available, don't post it. There's no reason to try and lock it down and forcing everyone to register in order to copy content. Requiring registration will not stop people from copying.Now, I have personal issues with the people who actually set up a site that's simply copied content. They're trying to make some money and decide that going through all of the effort to copy content is better than creating their own, but they can take their few dollars a month for all I care, it's no skin off my back.

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I really don't see any problems with anyone copying anything on this forum. This is a public forum, if you don't want something publicly available, don't post it. There's no reason to try and lock it down and forcing everyone to register in order to copy content. Requiring registration will not stop people from copying.Now, I have personal issues with the people who actually set up a site that's simply copied content. They're trying to make some money and decide that going through all of the effort to copy content is better than creating their own, but they can take their few dollars a month for all I care, it's no skin off my back.
My problem with it is also more personal. Some of these sites go as far as to track and group the posts of a particular username as they collect their data. The Internet is a public resource so I expect my posts to be public but sometimes I seek out information on a topic and I land on these thrawlers and there is little indication as to where the posts are coming from, leaving me confused as to just what the heck the site or community is about. All in all though its the openess that makes the Internet and Web great though.
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I have always thought the biggest farce is the million or more MIDi Music files available to freely download, everyone must be contraving music copyright, yet the powerful Performing Rights agencies are now powerless to do anything about them. I even have old shareware capable of printing the music score of many.Admittedly many involve multiple over tracking, making the music score almost impossible to reproduce. But that is surely no difference to the individual performance of any entertainer, which is still based on the original music of the composer always supposed to be subject to copyright.Gordon

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^^ It's all about money. If you have a copyrighted song in midi format on your site, no one will bother you. If Microsoft has one, the copyright owner will sue because they know they can collect.

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