Copyright
On the issue of copyright - to my mind, reprinting material from one source to another without permission is a violation of distribution rights - which in itself is often tied directly to copyright. However, it should be noted that messages on messageboards of most kinds have freely given up their distribution rights - even copyright - and is often explicitly stated so in the Terms of Use of such boards. I know MSN certainly have one in force, though I believe the Yahoo TOU was watered down after protests. Essentially, these places are protecting themselves legally from claims of illegally distributing copyrighted material.
I'm not a copyright lawyer so I may be completely wrong on the issue. This is merely my perception of the issue. Any specific discussion of this subject itself should really be taken to the General Chat board for discussion, though.
Other boards
There is an immediate situation developing here - essentially, old flame wars from other communities are threatening to ignite here.
So I'll make a clear position for all:
disagreements from other boards stay on those boards.
I'm aware that there are a number of people now present from other communities, who may or may not feel slighted by comments on those other communities. However, those are not issues that will be discussed here.
Certainly there is room to discuss general issues of attitude towards those within and without certain circles of faith.
However, specifics dealing with other online communities should now be kept within those other online communities.
I have no intention of allowing the comparative-religion.com forum to get dragged into an inter-community flame war.
To coin a cliche, the buck stops here.
Apologies to those who wished only to make well intentioned observances - the subject matter of attitudes within any sphere of belief is still open for discussion, but this individual thread itself must be closed.
On the issue of copyright - to my mind, reprinting material from one source to another without permission is a violation of distribution rights - which in itself is often tied directly to copyright. However, it should be noted that messages on messageboards of most kinds have freely given up their distribution rights - even copyright - and is often explicitly stated so in the Terms of Use of such boards. I know MSN certainly have one in force, though I believe the Yahoo TOU was watered down after protests. Essentially, these places are protecting themselves legally from claims of illegally distributing copyrighted material.
I'm not a copyright lawyer so I may be completely wrong on the issue. This is merely my perception of the issue. Any specific discussion of this subject itself should really be taken to the General Chat board for discussion, though.
Other boards
There is an immediate situation developing here - essentially, old flame wars from other communities are threatening to ignite here.
So I'll make a clear position for all:
disagreements from other boards stay on those boards.
I'm aware that there are a number of people now present from other communities, who may or may not feel slighted by comments on those other communities. However, those are not issues that will be discussed here.
Certainly there is room to discuss general issues of attitude towards those within and without certain circles of faith.
However, specifics dealing with other online communities should now be kept within those other online communities.
I have no intention of allowing the comparative-religion.com forum to get dragged into an inter-community flame war.
To coin a cliche, the buck stops here.
Apologies to those who wished only to make well intentioned observances - the subject matter of attitudes within any sphere of belief is still open for discussion, but this individual thread itself must be closed.