Rule Number 16

[HM-2]

Hi PH staff

Is it possible to get a clarification on what, if any, moderation guidelines or boundaries exist with relation to Rule 16:

"Do not copy and paste content from newspapers, news sites or other websites. This is a breach of their copyright and any such threads will be deleted".

The rule is written in such a way that it appears to prohibit citation of articles in part when when a fair use exemption would apply (such as for the purpose of criticism, review or reporting of current events). Given recent events, and the knowledge that a lot of members including myself cite and quote from other websites or news outlets for the purpose of comment, discussion or critique I'd very much appreciate some clear guidance on what is and isn't acceptable.

Could you provide a view on whether the following examples would be seen as a breach of Rule 16:

1) Posting a two or three sentence quotation from a news article complete with citation or link for the purposes of discussion or critique

2) Posting a summary paragraph such an the executive summary of a report or abstract of an academic work, again with citation or link, for the purposes of discussion.

3) Posting scans taken from historic copyrighted motoring print magazines/journalism for the purposes of discussion.

Thanks.

[anonymous-user]

A bit of a rethink of this is needed. The rule as stated is legally inaccurate. And since Byker has been banned from the Trump and Biden threads but those threads - which supposedly contain a st ton of material infringing copyright - haven’t been deleted, it’s not being applied properly in any event.

[The Rotrex Kid]

I will ask Ben to look into this and clarify for you.