new thread
Recently there has been a lot of activity relating to a certain rival site. I complained to the proprietors about copied copyrighted materials and received no reply. I also complained to Yahoo/Geocities through the appropriate channels. The site is now shut down as you all have noticed.
I have no doubt, though, that it will pop up again elsewhere.
My chief complaint was not about their opinions of us longhairs, but of their unauthorized use of copyrighted materials. In fact, I find the behavior of some of us longhairs to have been alarming.
You should know that the original reason for setting this site up was because of harrassment of posts from longhairs on other hair-related boards. We should not be hypocritical and harrass others as we were harrassed. If there are direct threats or attacks that is one thing, but attacking them just for pleasure I find appalling.
I ask that if and when the site comes up elsewhere, that you excercise a greater control over your emotions. Treat them with the respect that you would have them treat you. By all means, debate them if you wish, but be civil about it. You're far more effective that way anyway.
Getting back to copyrighted materials, I suspect that there are one or two copyrighted pictures that have been uploaded to the public area here. My policy on these is to delete them with no questions asked if I get a complaint. Please help me prevent a scenario where this site gets shut down due to a complaint of copyright infringement.
If you have uploaded something here that you know violated someone else's copyright, please contact me via email, and I will remove said files. If appropriate permissions were received, or if you had a copyright yourself, there is no problem.
Don't totally panic, though, folks! A good site on copyright infringement, prepared by a copyright lawyer, is this one:
Benedict O'Mahoney's Copyright Website
It explains that most use of copyrighted material that one would normally post on a nonprofit web board in conjunction with a discussion of it comes under the exemption of "fair use". Some of the exemptions that site mentions as being in the law are for "criticism", "comment", and "news reporting". Indeed, this is a "media outlet", when it comes to reporting news about long hair.
One way to minimize copyright concerns when discussing a news article or photo on the web is to provide the URL to a web page containing the item rather than to include the item in your post. Sometimes this is not practical, when, for example, the site does not leave articles posted for long, or the item discussed is in a magazine and cannot be found on line.
Victor,
I sure appreciate your hosting this site! Have you had any challenges against it? (People saying it is inappropriate, etc.?)
- Chris