privacy?
I’ve noticed several bloggers lately stating that they don’t want any part of anything on their blog to be quoted anywhere else without their express permission. Is that allowed? What right do they have to make such a claim? I mean, yeah, it’s their words… but even people that are paid for their words aren’t allowed to make that kind limitations on them.
I mean, come on, this is the world wide web. Why are you posting on it if you don’t want anyone to comment on what you have to say?
Or maybe it’s just that they want to know when and where people are commenting about what they’ve said. Well, I’ll grant that all bloggers are interested in that. We always want to know who is talking about what we’ve said, and all that. But… is it really allowed to say that nobody can talk about it without your permission?
I mean… I’m practically breaking the rules now, aren’t I? I can squeak through the loophole that I haven’t mentioned any names (even though that hasn’t stopped people from being offended in the past).
And, for the record, I know that I’m legally in the clear. But are we really bound by social consideration to obey these requests? Would it be bad manners for me to quote someone that requested I gain permission before quoting them?
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6 comments
I think you have a point. When I first set up my website, it was for a commercial purpose–to sell cartoons and articles. I copied another cartoonist’s copyright violation warning to use on my site (hope that wasn’t a copyright violation!) After all, I’m trying to sell this stuff. And yes, whether or not you are paid for your words, the law gives you a right to keep them from unauthorized use (by the way, simply quoting somone doesn’t necessarily count as unauthorized use). BUT–blogs are meant to be shared, as you say. I had all those scary warnings on my cartooning pages, but decided to take it off my blog page. Thanks for the food for thought.
I mean, come on, this is the world wide web. Why are you posting on it if you don’t want anyone to comment on what you have to say?
Exactly. Apart from the fact that (IMHO) there is no such thing as “privacy on the web”, the idea that people would try to require you to ask for permission to do something so ubiquitous as limited/cited quotation is just silly. (Or naive. Or egotistic. Or any combination of the above.) I think you’re spot on about the “blog mentality”. This sort of sharing/feedback/discussion mentality is also the reasoning behind trackbacks–a friendly and easy way to let you know who’s commenting on what you’ve said.
For what it’s worth, I wouldn’t have any compunction about disregarding “rules” like this and quoting the control freaks without permission of any sort, express or otherwise. I’d send ‘em a trackback too while I was at it.
Perhaps I’m callous, but my opinion is that if they want to try to make a big deal out of it, they’ll just be demonstrating to the world how silly and petty they are anyway.
If something is posted in a public place, then I have a hard time seeing how quoting it with a link to the original post is either impoliteness or unfair use. If something is posted in a private forum, then I can see where the author could expect not to be quoted, with or without attribution.
If I stand on a street corner with a megaphone, and later hear someone talking about what I said, I can’t hardly be surprised or offended that they are talking about it, though I might be offended at what they are saying. But if I was having a private conversation behind closed doors, and later discovered a tape of the conversation playing in public place, I think being upset would not be unreasonable.
Valerie,
I can certainly see a distinction between posting on a blog, and posting on a private forum. But, I also don’t consider a forum (even a private one) on the internet to be ‘behind closed doors’. It’s not like it’s a private discussion that you’d have with one or two people in a closed room. I think a better analogy would be some sort of club where membership is required, and you have a discussion there.
If I were at a gym, let’s say, talking to someone, and you heard me talking there… I don’t think it would be out of line for you to tell someone else what you heard me say. Or, to just say, “I heard someone say…”.
Actually, when I make an example in ‘real world’ situation, it seems ridiculous to suggest that permission must be granted to share what someone else has said. Unless, of course, they ask you not to tell anyone else. But that is exceptional.
Anyhow… I think Matt’s onto something when he says it’s naive or egotistic or a combination of the two.
I always have trackbacks on, by the way. So whenever I post a link, WP automatically tries to tell the site I’m linking to that I linked to them. Pretty cool.
This all struck me as familiar last night, but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was. This morning, I remembered–it’s like those sites that have policies prohibiting “unauthorized hypertext links” to them. (Don’t Link to Us used to keep track of these things, but looks like it’s been abandoned for a few years.) Presumably it’s some sort of liability or something that prompts companies like AmEx (which has a current policy to this day) to prohibit incoming links, but it beats me as to what that potential liability might be.
I guess somebody missed attending “The Basic Nature of the Internet 101″.
If something is published so as to be widely and freely available to all and sundry, it’s fair game for quoting.
You may quote me.
IMO. ;^)
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