Copyright

I have found that Jakob Nielson has had the most useful advice on web design and general concept of web development of any person who has published data and opinions about the web. I ascribe to his Policy on copyright and acknowledge his Policy by linking to it, HERE. Click on his image to the left for his home page.

Generally his Policy, also mine, is that anyone may link to any of my pages without asking permission.

He has other aspects to his Policy on Copyright which I have not always followed, personally, in the past. I am in the process of bringing my own 100,000+ pages into alignment with his Policies.

One of HIS Policies, about HIS web site, is that he pledges to leave various files in the same location "forever" so that if anyone follows his offer and links to that page rather than copy it, the link will remain good. There is a term called "link rot" in the web design world That term refers to web pages that are moved or even deleted so that any link that HAD been point to the page will no longer reach it.

Link rot is one of the reasons why the webmasters often copy a reference page rather than link to it. I have found that many of the pages I have copied and included on one of my web sites have this characteristic:

The page may have information on it that I find false or misleading. Others may come to the same conclusion about that page. Even an author may realize that his page contains false information. Sometimes he simply deletes the page without ever admitting that he may have caused considerable harm with his false information. One of my business purposes is to expose false data about health and other subjects. Thus it is common for me to find pages on the web that contain, in my estimation, false and harmful information. I have then justified copying that information on one of my web sites so that the original author cannot quietly delete it or change it. When I do this and add my own critical comments on the page that would be something covered in the copyright law under "Fair Comment."

It is OK with the law to copy material for the purpose of making a "Fair Comment." (different web site)

It would likewise be OK with the law to copy material when you have good reason to believe that the original author, or organization, may want to remove that information from public view. In cases like these it would be a "Fair Comment" to copy the information and add the comment about the false information since a mere link to that page would not suffice when and as that page is deleted from the web.

I have included on many thousands of my pages that persons were allowed to download any pages of my authorship, from my web sites. They were further allowed to use those copied pages in print or on the web without asking for my permission -- only my request that they not change the intended meaning of my work and that they provide a reference to my name and my original web location. I adopted this policy because I could not see a method of enforcing any more traditional prohibition on copying and using my material.

This policy of mine, as I said, exists on thousands of pages and it will take me some long time to find and change them all -- thus in the meantime I am bound to acknowledge those statements as they may be currently published, and do. When and as any of my pages have been revised to show the new copyright reference, that page is governed by that revised reference.

These pages are Copyright © 2006 by Karl Loren, All Rights Reserved