Information u has

[sandman]

ok, i am back again, after i left for like a month again, and i remember the first time i left someone asked me to see how many posts there were since my last login and well this time there were 10k+ but anyway that is not why i have come back.

I am entered in a multimedia competition, and basically i have to make a website. I chosen to do my web site on potato cannons. I need to know if it is ok for me to use info from here and the wiki on the website, all the info will be credited to here. After the competition i will save the site, and i can send it to PCGUY if he wants it as maybe a user friendly version of the wiki to introduce new users to tater cannons.

[Ragnarok]

I doubt anyone will complain as long as it's credited - the information has been put there for people to use.
If we wanted to keep it under wraps, we wouldn't have put it on an open internet forum, would we!

Well, even if others should complain (which I doubt), feel free to use my information and postings.

[sandman]

your ballistics calc will be noted as a must have tool

and i didnt think that there would be a problem but id rather not be disqualified from the competition because someone did have a problem

[Ragnarok]

your ballistics calc will be noted as a must have tool

If I ever finish it, perhaps...

[jrrdw]

You need to PM PCGUY with this pronto if you haven't all ready. Plagerizum and copywrite are touchy animals to deal with, I don't know if there is anything here copywrited but you have to ask PCGUY.

Brought to you in moderator red. Heheheee...

[TurboSuper]

Since it's for educational purpouses and not for commercial use I really don't see why anyone would get on your ass over it as long as it's properly credited. Nobody really "owns" information on potato cannons (I think DR patented the hybrid design, though), so it would just be like any other school research project, I'd imagine.

Still, you may want to get PCGUY's counsel just in case I'm wrong.

[psycix]

"Plagerizum"

When properly spelled this means that you copy information without mentioning the source. He was planning to give credit so, its not plagiarism.
It is however indeed a must to contact PCGUY.

[Ragnarok]

If he's crediting it or not directly copying it, it's not plagiarism. And given we've already posted it on a free to view forum, we cannot claim copyright infringement.

Copyright and plagiarism are also only an issue if anyone takes legal action against him (and I can't see that happening). No court on the planet would take up a claim based around copyright or plagiarism of something written on a public forum.

He is free to use the information. Pictures are a different matter. If we're being pedantic, he needs to secure the permission of the photo owner to use it (copyright), and must credit it (plagiarism).

Given there's no money involved however, it would be utterly wasteful for anybody on this site to chase him over anything he does, as there's nothing to gain.

[sandman]

ok, i have PM PCGUY. thanks for everyone that responded, and i will hold off on making the site, but i can only hold off so long, as the competition has to be turned in by the 12th.

[starman]

I believe it would be kind of you to also directly contact the member whose cannons, pics and/or verbage you plan to use, before you use it. While you don't legally need their permission, actually getting it would keep you in good standing with them. Getting their blessing will be a much better way to go in the long run. It shows you are responsible and that you respect their intellectual property.

[btrettel]

Copyright is a touchy subject. For any web project I don't use anything without permission unless it's clearly fair use like writing about or quoting/using limited portions with attribution, in which case getting permission would be prohibitively annoying.

I remember some discussion on a board for forum administrators I used to participate in about the copyright status of forum posts. The ownership is quite ambiguous in many cases. Spudfiles seems to use the standard phpBB2 TOS, which is one of the ambiguous ones. It would be reasonable to assume the forum administrators and the poster share copyright, but I'm no lawyer.

For forum posts I'd at least get the permission of the poster as they were the originator of the content. Some forum owners might have a problem with it too so it'd be a good idea to ask them as well.

Also, don't think legal action needs to be taken for anything to happen due to copyright violation. At the forum I mentioned earlier I read about times when hosting was terminated because of reported copyright violations regardless of any actual copyright violations. I think some hosts terminate immediately upon receipt of a DMCA request.

Overall... you're better safe than sorry so if you're using anything substantial be sure to ask. If you're just writing about what others have done, summarizing, or using small portions with attribution, don't bother.

[sandman]

I believe it would be kind of you to also directly contact the member whose cannons, pics and/or verbage you plan to use, before you use it. While you don't legally need their permission, actually getting it would keep you in good standing with them. Getting their blessing will be a much better way to go in the long run. It shows you are responsible and that you respect their intellectual property.

as soon as i know what i am using i will try to do so but as i said before i do have time constraints so really it will only be active members that i will be able to contact.

and just to be clear my site WILL NOT be put on the internet, it is only to demonstrate the effective layout of content.

[PCGUY]

and just to be clear my site WILL NOT be put on the internet, it is only to demonstrate the effective layout of content.

So is this for some sort of webpage design class?

As long as credit is given and it's for an offline project, go ahead.

[sandman]

not really a class, its a part of engineering competitions, last yr i took second at robotics, so this yr i thought id try at multimedia, thank you for the definitive answer.

I will let everyone know the outcome when i am done