Copyright

Coquina Sands, Image Credit: Leo Kenney

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Copyright

Terms and Conditions of Use / Legal Notices

Thank you for using amfed.org (the "AFMS Website") which is provided by The American Federation of Mineralogical Societies Inc. (the "Organization"). This page states the terms and conditions (the "Terms" or the "Agreement") under which you may use the AFMS Website. Please read this page carefully. By accessing the AFMS Website you accept and agree to be bound, without limitation or qualification, by these Terms. If you do not accept any of the Terms stated here, do not use the AFMS Website. The Organization may, in its sole discretion, modify or revise these Terms at any time by updating this web page. You are bound by any such modification or revision and should therefore visit this page periodically to review the Terms.

Submitted Content

All content submitted for use on this website is covered by the terms and conditions detailed on this page and is subject to all copyright rules herein.

Use of Material

The contents of this AFMS Website, including but not limited to text, software, photographs, graphics, illustrations, artwork, video, music, sound, names, logos, trademarks, service marks and other material ("Material") are protected by copyright and other laws in both the United States and elsewhere. The Material includes both content owned or controlled by the Organization and content owned or controlled by third parties and licensed to the Organization. The Organization authorizes you to view and download a single copy of the Material on the AFMS Website solely for AFMS FRA Club, non-commercial use. You may not sell or modify the Material or reproduce, display, publicly perform (outside of AFMS FRA club activities), distribute, or otherwise use the Material in any way for any public or commercial purpose without the written permission of the Organization. If you would like information about obtaining the Organization's permission to use any of the Material on our AFMS Website, e-mail the webmaster.

It is AFMS policy that its name and logos may not be used for commercial purposes. Please notify the Central Office of any violations.

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The AFMS Website contains links to third party Websites that are maintained by others. These links are provided solely as a convenience to you and not as an endorsement by this Organization of the contents on such third-party Websites or approval by the AFMS of these organizations or of the positions they may take on various issues. This Organization is not responsible for the content of linked third-party sites and does not make any representations regarding the content or accuracy of materials on such third-party Websites. If you decide to access linked third-party Websites, you do so at your own risk.

Copyright Infringement

If you believe that your work has been used on the AFMS Website in a manner that constitutes copyright infringement, please provide this Organization with a written notice (e-mail is sufficient) that includes the following information:

An electronic or physical signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the exclusive right that is allegedly infringed;

Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed;

A description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the AFMS Website;

Your address, telephone number, and email address;

A statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;

A statement by you, under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf.

Copyright Law: Facts and Fantasy

by John Betts

Web sites, newsletter, handouts, videos, slide shows. What do they have in common? They are all subject to copyright protection and must abide by copyright laws.

This article is to clarify the many misconception among mineral clubs, bulletin editors, AFMS and the EFMLS. Everything in this article has been researched and verified. Unfortunately, this may hurt how mineral clubs operate. But unless we take the precautions listed in this article, you are will be guilty of copyright violations. As an author I have had many instances where my articles have been reprinted without my permission. I have heard many excuses. They all show a basic misunderstanding of today’s copyright law. Following are the excuses most often given along with the actual rules that apply:

Misconception #1:

The article does not have a "C in a circle" symbol, therefore it is not copyrighted.

Fact:

According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) "The laws of almost all countries provide that protection is independent of any formalities, that is, copyright protection starts as soon as the work is created." You do not need the symbol or the phrase "All rights reserved" in order to protect an article from copyright infringement. These devices will discourage many, but they are not required.

Misconception #2:

The article was less than 250 words, therefore we can use it freely.

Fact:

An article, column, paragraph or sentence are all equally protected by copyright law regardless of length.

Misconception #3:

I credited the original club that published the article, therefore we are legal.

Fact:

Giving credit is not a substitute for getting permission. You must contact the author in advance and get permission. For your protection you should get permission in writing or email.

Misconception #4:

We got permission from another club editor to use the article, therefore we are legal.

Fact:

This is the most abused and misunderstood aspect of copyrights. It is sad, but true, that only the author can grant permission to reprint an article. We will discuss later various strategies for dealing with this problem in the conclusion of this article. But the law is clear, bulletin editors can / must get the author’s permission before using an article unless the club has received the authors approval to grant permission for reprinting. (In professional journals they clearly establish copyright ownership in advance with authors.)

Misconception #5:

The article won a prize in the EFMLS annual competition, and the EFMLS said we can reprint it, therefore it is not protected by copyrights.

Fact:

This is another misunderstanding. Again, only the author can grant permission reprint an article. If, in the future, the EFMLS includes a permission form for all entries to the bulletin editor’s competition to grant permission to reproduce, then other clubs can freely use the articles. But presently there is no such provision and the authors must be contacted to get permission.

Misconception #6:

We are not for profit, therefore copyright laws do not apply.

Fact:

Copyright laws apply to everyone. Not for profit status does not exempt you from copyright laws.

Misconception #7:

We can distribute Xerox copies of magazine articles to our members at meetings.

Fact:

Photocopies, transcriptions, or reprinting are all equally treated under copyright law. It is illegal to reproduce for any purpose an article without permission except under the provision of "fair use". Copyright law does allow fair use of copyrighted material provided only limited copies are made and it is for journalistic, educational or private use. But fair use is limited to the extent that the value of the original article is not reduced in any way. This is a very murky area of the copyright law and it is important that clubs play it safe. If you are going to rely on the fair use rule you should limit yourself to four or five paragraphs or illustrations and be careful not to take the text out of context so that the meaning is changed.

Misconception #8:

We excerpted only a portion of the original article, this is allowed under copyright laws.

Fact:

This is partially true. Small excerpts can be used, with proper credit to the original author and publisher, in original literary works without infringing on copyrights. However Lapidary Journal recently used an excerpt of one of my articles (without permission). The excerpt amounted to 80% of the column content. That is a copyright infringement. In this case by excerpting only parts of the article they omitted important safety precautions. As a rule of thumb, keep you excerpts short, and in small proportion to the original article content, and provide complete credit to the citation.

Misconception #9:

The article is over 25 years old, therefore no longer protected by copyrights.

Fact:

There are several different terms for works published depending on date of publication. For works created before January 1,1978 the copyright coverage is generally for 75 years after publication or 100 years after creation if unpublished, whichever is shorter. There are some subtleties in this law around a 28 year term when first published that is extended to 75 years automatically. Bulletin editors should use the rule that copyrights extend 75 years from date of publication.

Misconception #10:

This article was from another country therefore not protected by copyright law.

Fact:

Currently all developed countries have signed either the International Union for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (Berne Union) or the International Union for the Protection of Industrial Property (Paris Union). The total count as of April 1, 1998 was 168 countries participating in enforcing reciprocal copyright laws. Country of origin makes no difference, you must still get the author’s permission.

Misconception #11:

Another club reprinted the article, therefore it is legal for our club to reprint the article.

Fact:

Permission granted to reproduce an article is not transferable. Each subsequent club must contact the author to get permission.

Misconception #12:

We included the article on our club Internet web site, since we didn’t actually publish anything, we have not violated the copyrights.

Fact:

This is one of the most common abuses and is a violation of copyrights. Again, you must get the authors permission to use the article. If the article originated on a web site, it is proper netiquette (Internet etiquette) to put a description to the article on your page with a link to the original web site article. As a courtesy you should ask permission first.

Misconception #13:

I got the author’s permission to reprint an article that he wrote for a magazine, therefore it is legal.

Fact:

This may or may not be true. In general, magazines request authors assign their copyrights to the magazine. In this case only the magazine (the copyright holder) can grant permission to use their article. However, knowledgeable authors know that they do not have to assign copyrights to the magazine, they can simply grant the magazine the right to publish the article and retain the copyright for themselves. In this case contacting the author does in fact get legal permission to use the article.

By now you might think the situation looks hopeless. But there are solutions. If all clubs adopted the following standards then we will continue to have a free flow of new articles.

  • List the author’s address, and email for every article printed in the newsletter. This will give other bulletin editors the information needed to get legal permission.

  • Contact the author or magazine before reprinting an article. In my experience no newspaper, magazine or author has ever refused permission to use an article in a club newsletter when asked in advance.

  • Get permission in writing, or at least email. This is essential to protect yourself from copyright infringement claims in the future, especially from forgetful authors.

  • Make all authors submitting articles to your newsletter assign your club the copyright. Then you can place a blanket permission statement on the bulletin cover page allowing use of article within. Serious authors are likely to balk at this requirement.

  • Remember that copyright laws apply to things other than newsletters. Web sites, handouts, videos, etc. are all covered by copyright law. Many infringements have needlessly occurred on web sites where articles are placed on a web site without permission. If the article exists on the author’s original web site it is very easy to simply link to the original article. No need to reprint it at all. Otherwise you must get the author’s permission.

  • If you cannot get permission from the author for whatever reason, you can paraphrase. Words can be copyrighted but not the ideas. You can rewrite the article in your own words and not infringe on copyrights. Be very careful to avoid accidentally changing the original meaning and it is still proper to cite your sources, in fact in the EFMLS annual competition articles are penalized if they don’t cite references.

  • Use articles or illustrations in the public domain. All U.S.G.S maps and publications are in the public domain and are not covered by copyrights. Articles from magazines that have expired copyrights are also in the public domain. (Did you ever wonder why you see "It’s A Wonderful Life" on television 25 times at the holidays? It is because the copyrights expired and it fell into the public domain.)

For further information on the subject of copyrights you can visit the Library of Congress United States Copyright Office web site at:

https://www.copyright.gov/

Or visit the World Intellectual Property Organization web site at:

https://www.wipo.int/portal/en/index.html

John Betts

John Betts Fine Minerals

215 West 98 Street, No. 2F

New York, NY 10025

212-678-1942

http://members.aol.com/jhbnyc/home.htm

jhbnyc@aol.com

Copyrights of the article(s) are retained by the author(s). Permission is given by the author for reprinting with attribution to the author. This information is provided for your reading enjoyment and the AFMS cannot guarantee the accuracy and completeness of the information contained therein. The opinions expressed are those of the author and may or may not represent those of the AFMS.

Any rights not expressly granted herein are reserved

About the image on this page

This sand was collected on a beach in Florida during a club field trip. The beautiful orange bits look like pieces of shells don't they? They are, but really old shells that have had all or part of their original material replaced by silica.

Image Credit: Leo Kenney