I am writing this short blog to remind everyone to please cite your sources. The internet has become a wonderful place to share information and break down boundaries which have previously restricted the free flow of information to all of humanity. The proverbial flood-gates have most assuredly opened.

It is imperative to remember that if you do not cite your source, ie. who the author is of a massive quotation, you and your web account are assuming authorship of said quotation if credit is not given. Intellectual dishonesty does not help us progress scholarship and it will rightfully anger the author's who probably want us buying their books instead of posting them for free online. The "middle ground" of the age of free-information and copyright law would be to share as much information as is prudent and to give credit to whom you are quoting.

The reproduction of material online, particularly in this context, is protect under law. So long as there is proper citiation, we care share information in the spirit of fair use. What does this specifically mean? The Copyright Act of 1976 explains:

The "fair use" doctrine embodied in the Fair-Use Statute Section 107 of the 1976 Copyright Act, allows reproduction and other uses of copyrighted works under certain conditions for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship or research for educational and research purposes.

The Act gives four factors to be considered to determine whether a particular use is a fair use:

1. the purpose and character of the use (commercial or educational, transformative or reproductive);
2. the nature of the copyrighted work (fictional or factual, the degree of creativity);
3. the amount and substantiality of the portion of the original work used; and
4. the effect of the use upon the market (or potential market) for the original work.

Please try to keep your copying and pasting legal! Your best bet is to always contact the publisher or the author of the work before reproducing it. Short of that, in the current age of massive archiving of information to be made freely available, be sure to cite your sources so one does not mistake your copying as taking claim for creating the work.

And last, if you really enjoy a work of art, support the artist! They have to take a living, too!

Respectfully,

~Green Moon~