[WikiEN-l] When can an article be considered public domain?

Sat Aug 14 05:39:53 UTC 2004

First IANAL, but have worked for years with issues involving intellectual property.

The first question is: When was the material you want to use created? Since it was created during the '90s, it is in copyright, where or not a copyright notice appears.

Second. Who is the copyright owner? This is almost always the author, unless the work was done for hire AND the author contractually transferred his/her rights to another, or has otherwise assigned these rights. So assume it is the author, unless someone else can prove otherwise.

Third. Can you use the material because the copyright owner can't/doesn't want to be found? -- No.

Fourth. Can you use the material because you think the copyright owner wants it to be freely distributed? -- You'll need some kind of explicit proof of that, such as a statement by the copyright owner saying you can do it, or a dedication to the public domain.

Fifth. So you are essentially left with "fair use." Fair use is not a bright line. Generally, you may quote reasonable portions of a work in order to honestly critique it, especially if this is part of an intellectual or educational effort. You cannot quote so much as to spoil the copyright owners ability to market and profit from his own work. It is not your decision whether or not the work is commercially viable, etc. To go to an extreme, you obviously cannot quote an entire article and then make some comments and call it fair use.

Again, IANAL, but I hope this helps. 

JC
----- Original Message -----
From: Robert <rkscience100 at yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 13 Aug 2004 12:19:10 -0700 (PDT)
To: wikien-l at wikipedia.org
Subject: [WikiEN-l] When can an article be considered public domain?

> I am writing an article on the [[Kabbalah Center]], the
> for-profit religious group led by former insurance agent
> Feivel Gruberger, who now claims to be "Rabbi Philip Berg".
> 
> 
> There is a lengthy and carefully referenced article about
> him and his work called ''The Truth about the Kabbalah
> Centre'' which I got a photocopy of. It was published by
> the ''Task Force on Cults and Missionaries'', Los Angeles,
> CA in 1995. The references and facts stated therein match
> the claims in other articles, from newspapers. (Berg and hs
> group have been investiagted by journalists from the US and
> Israel; he is accused of running a cult and brainwashing
> some of his disciples, as well as scamming them out of
> large amounst of money, and endangering their health.)
> 
> 
> etc. etc. 

-- 
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