Question?

[Guest imported_Debby]

I have a member that sent me information on his car. He also sent me a scan of stuff out of a old magizine about this car. Is it alright to use that or not!!

[ppaquet]

Debbie

I would think that it would depend on what the info is and from what publication. Is it current material or is it from a publication that no longer exists? Also you could possibly use some "exerpts" and give the magazine as a source of information. If this doesn't help, come back and there will most likely be more help forthcoming.

[Guest imported_Debby]

It says" Popular Science 1949-1950"

Its a picture of the car (drawn not a photo)it shows how the car was improved for safty, heavy metal fenders thing like that?

[R W Burgess]

Debbie, Something that old probably can be used. I'd still give credit to the magazine. Judy Edwards will surely give us the scoop on this issue shortly.

I've used material from recent magazines with permission from the publisher/editor. They generally answer e-mails pretty fast. In my case, the author of the byline seemed surprised that someone wanted to use his material. That was Corry Farley from AutoWeek, an excellent writer by the way. Wayne

[JanK]

Copyright police here. The source you quote is NOT out of copyright yet, so you'd have to ask for reprint permission to use it. Rule of thumb according to an intellectual property attorney I consulted is 95 years, which is more than the 75 year rule that I heard at an AACA seminar some years ago. Copyright covers words and pictures, so the drawing you mention is also protected.

As Wayne noted, being copyright compliant can be as easy as asking for (and receiving) reprint rights from the original source. However, since that published source may only have been granted first or limited rights, it may be necessary to go directly to the source of the material for reprint permissions.

Copyright compliance can be a tricky issue. That's why we, as The Beam editors, tried to avoid using previously published material as much as possible. It was hard for our members to understand why we couldn't just print whatever they gave us, but they weren't the ones that would be held liable if someone saw fit to sue us!

Jan K.

Wis Region

[Guest imported_Debby]

Thanks for that information. I don't want any trouble!! I just put in his pictures of his old car and for get the rest.

[24T42]

Debby,

Jan is right - copyright issue can be tricky. But they do not have to be. You might want to refer to the following guidelines. They are written simply and not in legal-ease.

Copyright Information

Hope this helps. I keep this page bookmarked and refer to it often

[JanK]

Judy, thanks for the link to this site. It's clear, concise, yet explains everything very well.

Jan K.

[West Peterson]

I don't mean to tell you to do something that might be wrong, but here's my experience when I was with commercial publications.

When I would be contacted by local or regional type club publications, it was more of a bother than anything else to respond to a request like that. I doubt if any commercial publication would mind, especially with proper credit, if a small newsletter of hardly more than 50-100 copies used a portian of their material. This does not mean that you should reprint a complete feature story, but even then, I wouldn't have paid it much attention. If, however, it was pointed out to me that the club publication was making a huge habit of doing such, I'd write a letter asking them to stop (I never had to write a letter like that). I really wouldn't sweat it.

Just my two-cents