Our New Home

We have a new home, come join us at WeAreSMRT (We Are Skeptical Minds & Rational Thinkers)

The Forum

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Fair Use My Arse

Comfort is now claiming the following...

"Please note: Comments placed on this site may be quoted in future publications, under the "Fair Use" law. FL 102, Fair Use, and Circular 21, Reproductions of Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians"

Which is he? A librarian or educator?






Or talentless, plagiarizing twunt...?

27 comments:

  1. haha a librarian or educator?? What a joke.

    Does that mean I could have comments published (i.e taken out of context) and not even know about it? Thank goodness no one reads his stuff anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I just noticed Ray's "comments may be quoted in future publication" warning is in an obscure part of his blog on the side bar. Most people will never read it. If he wanted to not be such a sneaky little bastard he should really put that warning in the notes under "leave your comment".

    ReplyDelete
  3. If he wants to quote me out of context he can. Maybe some of his readers will google those misquotes and find my website or this one.

    ReplyDelete
  4. For Ray "fair use" = "quote mine". Educator; librarian. He probably couldn't get a job shelving books in a library.

    ReplyDelete
  5. SS...

    "Thank goodness no one reads his stuff anyway."

    You got that right. The only people who can swallow this crap are the hard-core followers. I actually tried to watch expelled this weekend. Someone lent me a copy. I couldn't watch more than ten minutes without turning it off in disgust.

    And it wasn't even about the content. It was the way they packaged it. The only people who can listen to this stuff are the ones who are already converted.

    What really strikes me about the people over there is how proud they are of their ignorance, intolerance and gullibility

    ReplyDelete
  6. Don,

    Yeah it's funny how Ray thinks he is converting people with his books. Anyone who reads Ray's stuff and is "converted" was probably already converted before they even opened the book.

    ReplyDelete
  7. It's not about converting people. It's about converting his merchandise into cold cash. The holy spirit does the actual saving part, he only works for him and the pay is pretty good.

    Poor saps.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hah! One of Rays moderators noticed the nasty comment I sent them!

    That sidebar used to read "All comments placed on this site are copyrighted and become the property of Living Waters."

    PS: Word Verification is "beraging". I don't know if that's a word, but it should be.

    ReplyDelete
  9. "That sidebar used to read 'All comments placed on this site are copyrighted and become the property of Living Waters.'"

    I never noticed that. That's even sneakier.

    ReplyDelete
  10. librarian or educator?

    To quote from his TV show: "Bypass the intellect".

    Maybe it's some kind of bait?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Jill,

    good point, I forgot about that "bypass the intellect". Yup that Ray sure is an educator.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Just posted this over there, not that it will get through the censors:

    Ray,

    With regard to your "Fair Use" notice.

    You had better consult an attorney before you publish anyone's comments from this medium in a work that you sell.

    FL 102 is clear and one of the criteria for copyright materials to meet Fair Use is:

    1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

    If you are gathering opinions here and baiting Atheists to comment just so you can publish their materials and profit from it, well that's just despicable.

    An honorable person would not sneak in a bogus notice on the site to try to cover their bases.

    If you were honorable you would seek out each person whose material you intend to use and profit from and formally request their permission in writing and then honor their wishes. That is what FL102 advises:

    The safest course is always to get permission from the copyright owner before using copyrighted material.

    ReplyDelete
  13. So Ray says:"Besides, we are a 5013C non profit, and I am a Bible teacher. Any books I write are for educational purposes. Thanks for your concern."

    A non-profit that making Ray rich if you remember the post about Ray's finances. A teacher? Educational?
    Remember "Bypass the intellect"?

    ReplyDelete
  14. My Respone:

    Just because you are a 501(C)(3) (not 3 c) nonprofit does not make you exempt from copyright infringement. This makes me think that you have not consulted a lawyer about this item, at least not a very good one.

    Simply being a tax-emept organization does not give you free reign to trounce copyright law and use copywritten material in books that YOU SELL.

    The educational provision is not for ministers to pillage and plunder others works and use that material in marketable products.

    Tell me, why do YOU copyright your own works? If I worked at a non-profit, could I take any of your copywritten works and publish them without your permission or without giving you credit for them?

    Again an honorable person would seek permission of the copyright holder(s).

    ReplyDelete
  15. His lawyer probably thinks that since it costs time and money to defend a copyright claim that Ray can pretty much do what he likes.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Ray didn't seem to want to post my advice about fair use. It won't pass muster. If he wishes to use comments in a book he publishes, he's going to have to get written permission. I just spoke to my copyright attorney about it.

    It will be interesting to see what that elusive side bar comment is going to evolve into now...

    ReplyDelete
  17. Clearly some don't mind being published, others do. Count me as one of those who do...

    Obviously Ray will be contacting every person whom he quotes to seek permission - won't he? It is the only fair thing to do after people have complained about the situation.

    If you receive a missive from Ray, it would be interesting to hear from you...

    ReplyDelete
  18. Obviously Ray will be contacting every person whom he quotes to seek permission - won't he?

    This Ray you're talking about. He posted a notice to the effect of his _owning_ any comment made to him. That's right _owning_. It was repeatedly pointed out to him that this was illegal so he changed it to:

    Comments placed on this site may be quoted in future publications for educational purposes, under the "Fair Use" law....etc

    If he asks for permission, people may turn him down. He thinks this "fair use" thing is iron-tight so he won't ask at all...

    ReplyDelete
  19. Comfort has changed the text of his 'fair use' notice again. This time he is highlighting his organisations non-profit status. Quite how that sits with posts like 'Sarah Palin Rocks' I know not...

    Please note: Comments placed on this site may be quoted in future publications for educational purposes, under the "Fair Use" law. Living Waters Publications is a registered 501c3 non profit organization. FL 102, Fair Use, and Circular 21, Reproductions of Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians

    Exactly what is the educational value of an 'Atheist Bible' anyway?

    ReplyDelete
  20.      I would suggest that the Living Waters copyright policy has a lot to say about whether their use would really fall under Fair Use.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Ohh, I just realized what he is up to.

    I kept asking myself last night why would an honorable person not seek the permission of copyright owners to use their material in published works?

    Then I thought, forget that, why wouldn't a reasonably sane person with common sense seek necessary permission? Why wouldn't ANYONE do that?

    Bingo, light bulb. He WANTS there to be controversy. He probably even hopes that we will get slapped with a suit.

    Controversy = Publicity = Book sales.

    Sad.

    ReplyDelete
  22. JG:

         It might be a bad idea. I did a post where I talked about what might become of such a situation. His followers are very forgiving. The tax man isn't.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Ray's blog sits on Google's servers. Doesn't that mean that Google/Blogspot's Terms of Service take precedence over whatever he wants to say? We all signed up with THEM, not HIM, and agreed to THEIR ToS.

    Doesn't that mean that he can't pull crap like this because he's trying to undermine the service he's using?

    ReplyDelete
  24. I just read the Google TOS and I would hazard a guess that Ray's quote harvesting is in fact in breach of the spirit if not the letter of the agreement.

    ReplyDelete
  25. With that being said: Who wants to report him? :-)

    ReplyDelete
  26. Blogger's Flag function isn't very helpful here - I tried and here's what it told me:

    -- Is a Blogger user copying your content? Please note that Blogger is not in a position to arbitrate issues regarding ownership of content; however, Blogger does comply with the United States Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA). For more information on how to file a DMCA complaint with Blogger, please click here.

    -- Is a Blogger user engaging in piracy or providing links to copyrighted material? Please direct the copyright owner to file a DMCA complaint with Blogger. Please note that we can only process DMCA complaints originating from the copyright owner.

    ReplyDelete

Unlike Ray we don't censor our comments, so as long as it's on topic and not spam, fire away.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.