Is it theft of intellectual property?

[alexander]

I browse numerous pages of the forum and time from time I find interesting information for the keeping of tailed amphibians (advices, recommendations etc). But this information is sparse and daily is buried by new incoming topics. And moving of “stale” topics in the archives is equal to the falling of the information into oblivion.

I offer to create “the Gold Fund of recommendations for keeping of tailed amphibians” using the interesting materials of the forum! Not each of keepers can write even small article, but all together we can write the “basic work”. Imagine a book of 850 authors (number of registered keepers).

For the realization of this idea I offer to use “World Caudate Registry” /WCR/ (caudata.ru’s version) www.caudata.ru/registry .

Truth to tell, this database as registry of caudate keepers day by day becomes poor. (It’s my “omission”: I created an intelligent database which deletes information about keepers who did not confirm their datas during 6 month… And I must note that overwhelming majority of registered keepers of WCR (especially my old friends) suffers from “lapse of memory”.) But WCR can function as data warehouse of recommendation for keeping of tailed amphibians!

Dear colleagues,
before the starting of this project I must clear up a question: is it theft of intellectual property?

 

[mark]

That is an interesting idea and sounds like a lot of hard work!

As to the theft - who does the information belong to? Information on public forums such as this is not copyrighted. I suppose whoever owns the database is essentially the owner of the data, but would they have the right to publish it verbatim and claim it their own work? If the site were to close tomorrow (let's hope it doesn't) I doubt there is any legal claim to the information individuals have posted. But then I'm not a lawyer so this is supposition. You should contact John to hear his views before progressing.

 

[jennifer]

I'm not exactly sure how you would organize this to make it any more useful than the current forum archives. This forum does have all information archived, and it is searchable (although most new users never bother to search).

Here is an example of some archived discussions:
http://faq.thekrib.com/

I agree that this is something John Clare will need to comment on.

 

[uwe]

The question of IP is not quite as easy as discussed above. I think you need to cite the person who has given this information and you may have to ask if you are allowed to.
For pictures for example you would do this anyhow. So written information should be handled the same way.
To make it easy you have to ask John and the persons you cite for a general allowance.

Uwe

 

[mark]

You're right Uwe, it is more complicated and after a bit of research it seems that much is covered by automatic copyright. To quote from various pages of http://www.intellectual-property.gov.uk

“database right may exist in a database. This is an automatic right and protects databases against the unauthorised extraction and re-utilisation of the contents of the database. Database right lasts for 15 years from making but, if published during this time then the term is 15 years from publication.”
“It is important to remember, that many databases are a collection of copyright works, such as an on-line database of poetry from the last fifty years where each poem will be protected by copyright. So people compiling databases need to make sure that they have permission from the copyright owners for use of their material and people using databases need to be aware of the rights of copyright owners as well as database right owners. Where a database has been delivered on-line, though, there will often be a contractual agreement between the database owner and the user setting out what use is permitted, and this will generally take precedence over any exceptions in the law.”

So unless the users of this forum have entered into a contractual agreement with the owner of the database about the use of their contributions then all of the input into the forum is automatically protected by copyright. Ideas are not copyrighted but the work is. So… “I think a floating palm tree would be nice in my newt tank” is not protected but “look at my wonderful homemade floating palm tree” or “this is how I reared these larvae” is protected.

This is UK law so I guess it depends on the copyright law of the country that hosts the database.

 

[john]

Put simply, if one wanted to use information posted by users on this site, be it textual or photographic/graphic, one would have to seek the permission of each user who has posted the information of interest.

I feel that I cannot grant permission for the whole forum to be put elsewhere (not that I could not do so, but rather I do not think it's ethical for me to make that decision for everyone who uses this forum).

Any more thoughts on this?

 

[terry]

Hello John,

I was thinking about that in regards to photographs. Sometimes I am in a hurry and I noticed I did not label the photographs with ©. However is there a system which could log in photos as "property of caudata/author"?

 

[alexander]

It's clear, John. Let's forget about the idea of creation of “the Gold Fund of recommendations for keeping of tailed amphibians”. The legal framework has done its part. Thank you Mark Aartse-Tuyn that you found this idea interesting.