Booger1

So,everything on the web is copyrighted......LOL! ......Copyright lawyers must be REALLY BUSY FELLOWS!....

I removed that statement because I didn't want to start anything.....not fast enough.

And don't be quoting me without my permission,it's copyrighted material....

PlanoFuji

Not everything. Different countries have different laws regarding copyright. For most material, copyright lawyers are overkill. As I said earlier, individuals are perfectly capable of seeking redress for copyright violations. Indeed having taken the extra effort to register copyright, the US copyright office has an online form to file for violations--no lawyers needed. Since U.S. law makes the statutory fines for copyright violations when the material has gone through the registration process very high--up to $30,000 per violation getting compliance from offenders at least business based ones like the ACA is usually quite easy. Their own lawyers will be glad to explain their potential liability on such practices. Which is why simply contacting them with a registered letter will undoubtedly get them to remove the material they have stolen.

And quoting as practised on this forum would be covered under the fair use exemption to copyright...

himespau 

Wow, ACA always seemed like they were on the up and up.

Winona.Bateman

Winona Bateman here, media director for Adventure Cycling Association.


Walter's story was submitted to us through our "Submit a Trip" form on Bikeovernights.org, which is how we receive most of our bike overnights stories.


In this case, it seems as though someone may have submitted on his behalf and we missed a step in confirming the submission with the author -- something we generally do as a matter of course.


Our Bike Overnights editor is contacting Walter and we will absolutely remove the post if that is his request. Walter feel free to let us know here too. (BTW: You can reach Mac, the editor, at mmccoy@adventurecycling.org directly.) We are so sorry for any misunderstanding or error on our part. We would never ever intentionally use material without the permission of the author.


Our submissions system has worked great for nearly 3 years and the site is full of wonderful, original, used-by-permission content, but obviously this time something went wrong. We will correct it.


Thanks everyone.


Winona Bateman, Media Director
Adventure Cycling Association
wbateman@adventurecycling.org

Rowan

Bear in mind also that BFs has quite a strict policy on quoting from web sources, and much prefers links to be inserted with a short precis on any material referred from outside the site.

Rowan

Not in all parts of the world.

sonatageek

I know this thread is really done, but I found this blog with seemed to have some decent info about this very topic:

https://lorelle.wordpress.com/2006/04...-your-content/

BigAura

I'm sure there are "mostly" good intentions surrounding the ACA, but then again they appropriated the the Bike Centennial and made it a BUSINESS. To see that they are a business check out their catalog.

They co-opted Walter's material hoping they could get away with it. It's not fair use because Walter says so. I'm on Walter's side.

Walter S

I appreciate the perspective and supportive comments. I contacted ACA as indicated by their post on this thread and we're discussing the matter. I have no interest in money. I don't consider myself to be much of an "author". I'm just a bicycle nut writing about his thoughts and adventures on the subject. We're discussing it. I'm just asking for a visible credit to my blog at the close of the story.

Thanks again.

OldZephyr

Did you read the post from Winona at the ACA? Do you have any reason to believe Winona is lying about the chain of events? Do you really know that the ACA "co-opted Walter's material hoping they could get away with it".

As for your first point, lots of non-profits sell merchandise to fund operations. What's wrong with that? While I personally am not interested in buying stuff from their catalog or taking one of the ACA tours, they do good work as far as I can tell, and I can't think of many organizations that do what ACA does on a national scale for bicycle touring.

PlanoFuji

Even if one accepts Winona's explanation, that simply means the organization has a quality control problem they need to take care of. Copying remote material (from another website) without a paper trail from the actual owner of that site is a problem (both legal and ethical). Taking suggested links is fine, they just need to actually go through the effort to contact the owner through that web sites contact information and obtain permission prior to copying the content. If that is their usual procedure, they need to figure out why it didn't happen here and correct the problem. If it isn't their usual procedure they need to change to it, since their current approach could lead to significant statutory damages if they do it to the wrong person.

BigAura

oops. I did not. But I'm still on Walter's side not the ACA.

Walter S

I just want to cap off this discussion by saying that I worked it out with ACA and they put a link to my blog on their site.
I find ACA to be professionally run and and they have the best of intentions. Something broke down about their approval process in this case but people make mistakes and I don't think anything more of it. I'm a member of ACA in good standing and will remain so.

I would not have even started this thread were it not for the fact that I'm very inexperienced at the whole blogging thing and had just discovered the story on bikeovernights.org and didn't know how I should feel or react or what my rights are. Otherwise I could have contacted them directly about the matter and I'm sure they would have resolved it just the same. I have no ill will towards ACA and I hope to post accounts of trips I make in the future there.

Rowan

All's well that ends well.

There have been some good information come out of it, I think.

And kudos to ACA for posting a response about the issue, giving undertakings, and following through with them.