Quote:
Originally Posted by Der_Iron_Chef
Cool, I'd be willing to help out, Sean. I'm just wondering, when you're writing the articles....how are you getting your information? Is it legal to copy information from other websites (liveaquara.com, for example) if you give them credit in the endnotes?
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it is legal to "cite" it. as for copying an entire article verbatim you must read their copyright agreement. you can't copy n paste an entire article usually. you can only reference small snippets as support for your argument. The idea of a well researched article relies on thorough research that references other texts.
now wikireef's own "copyleft" agreement can interfere with some articles "for educational use" agreements. wikireef is not "for educational use" it is "for ANY use, as long as you allow any use as well for your iteration." just like wikipedia. somone can take a wikipedia article, print it on paper and sell it for $100 a piece. perfectly legal. but you can't copy a "for educational use" article word for word into wikireef then print it out from wikireef and charge money for it. you have to respect the original copyright's terms.
now there is writing out there that is "open" or "copyleft" such as wikipedia for instance. as a rule of thumb you can copy and paste an entire article from wikipedia as long as you copy the sources too.
have a look at some wikipedia.com articles and you'll understand what you can do within the laws. quite a lot actually
short answer: you can copy snippets from other writings as long as you cite it at the bottom, and if you've copied any sections word for word, use quotations.
ie:
Making positive identifications of coral species is "difficult for average aquarists because corals often can not be identified from photographs" (1).
(at bottom of article)
(1) Author, Some. "Some random publication",
Publication name, V3 Sept 2005. Accessed Nov 11, 2007.
Oh and you don't have to cite common knowledge. don't have to find a reference that saltwater aquariums have salt in them, that corals need light and that metal halide lights require ballasts. stuff like that. If most of your audience knows it you don't have to cite it.