Copyright Notice [Was Re: [LINK] The 14 signs of fascism]

[Roger Clarke]

At 14:08 +1000 30/7/06, grove at zeta.org.au wrote:
>http://www.veteransforpeace.org/The_14_characteristics_030303.htm

Valuable in its own right, but there's another aspect that's interesting.

At the top, it says: "The excerpt is in accordance with the 
magazine's policy" (presumably meaning the claimed copyright-holder, 
Free Inquiry magazine).

At the bottom, it says:
Copyright © 2003 Free Inquiry magazine
Reprinted for Fair Use Only.

It appears that the magazine is not incorporated, and hence doesn't 
own anything, least of all copyright.

The magazine's publisher is the Council for Secular Humanism:
http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=main&page=about

For the purposes of the exercise, I'm assuming the Council is 
incorporated.  If so, they presumably are asserting copyright 
(although without an assignment in writing, it stays with the 
authors).  If not, then the individual Board-members are presumably 
jointly the copyright-owners.

The site says
http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=fi&page=purpose
"Copyright notice: The copyright for the contents of this web site 
rests with the Council for Secular Humanism.
"You may download and read the documents. Without permission, you may 
not alter this information, repost it, or sell it. If you use a 
document, you are encouraged to make a donation to the Council for 
Secular Humanism."

So, I wonder whether the courts would make of the interesting 
statement "Reprinted for Fair Use Only"?!

-- 
Roger Clarke                  http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/
			            
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Visiting Professor in Info Science & Eng  Australian National University
Visiting Professor in the eCommerce Program      University of Hong Kong
Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW