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Marc Wood, 12/28/2005, 7:20:20 AM
As for putting copyrighted material into forums, I think the same rules would apply to publishing copyrighted material anywhere else--the only question is who's responsible for any copyright violations, the person running the forum or the one who makes the post.

In this forum, there is a Terms of Usage statement that specifies that only brief passages of copyrighted material (which constitutes "fair use" under copyright law) may be included in postings, but if the material is available elsewhere online, you could always get around that by providing a link to the material instead.

If what you really mean is whether original material posted in forums *becomes* copyrighted, there is an interesting article about that published recently on the Student Press Law Center Web site: a newspaper's use of material found on Facebook.com prompted a letter from a lawyer representing the site:

http://www.splc.org/newsflash.asp?id=1141

Rob V., 1/2/2006, 9:33:15 AM
I highly recommend people read that story that was linked above. It definitely brings up some interesting / confusing questions.

Rob Velella
Red & Black adviser
Washington & Jefferson College

Ashley Robertson, 1/2/2006, 11:56:22 PM
Thanks for the link Marc. I certainly found it interesting. Our newspaper encountered a problem identical to this concerning an opinion column and our writers use of quotes from Facebook. We contacted the SPLC prior to publication and felt confident running the column as it was written. It's mediocre in comparison to the Miami article, but in essence, we did the same thing. Facebook is a public forum...I consider it no different from a student running into a football stadium and shouting their views on something to the ceiling, then saying the media couldn't print what they said. Let's be realistic here.

EIC, The Delta Statement
Delta State University- Cleveland, MS

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