Vicky and fair use

[Guest guest]

Hi Vicky,

 

you are concerned about violating the copyright laws, but I believe the

way you post short excerpts for the purpose of learning and discussion

to an email list that is a sangha, a group of people studying Ramana

Maharshi's words and discussing them to practice their message is well

within what are called "fair use" rules. The copyright laws are

primarily to protect the author's right to control the monetary gains

from such works. I don't believe Sri Ramana would be concerned about

your use of his words, and in fact I feel quite confident that he

approves and has given his blessing (yikes, listen to me speaking for a

sage... hee, hee, hee!)

 

anyway, I hope you will continue to post because the continuous stream

of Ramana Maharshi's wisdom is incredibly helpful to me in my growth and

is a deep part of my life. You are doing me a great service by putting

his words here, and I think there are higher laws than those of the

government of man. You may not want to put them up enmass, but surely

posting small peices the way you do is fair use.

 

Love, Mark

ps if you want to learn more about fair use, do a search on Google.

There are many sites devoted to it, especially for educational purposes.

 

pps Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976. Limitations on exclusive

rights: Fair use

 

Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of

a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or

phonorecords or by any other means specified in that section, for

purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including

multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an

infringement of copyright.

 

In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is

a fair use the factors to be considered shall include --

 

1.the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is

of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

2.the nature of the copyrighted work;

3.the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to

the copyrighted work as a whole; and

4.the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the

copyrighted work.

[Guest guest]

Dear Vicky,

I will of course honor your request to delete, since the files are

your work. Yesterday I spent some time researching fair use. While we

are not either an officially educational or religious organization, we

might be said to have both those purposes. The materials are also

restricted to use of our list members and not generally known to be

available, so actually they are not made public. If it's any

consolation to you, a google search for Be As You Are (or even

Ramana) does not turn up existence of HS or RM lists even. Hence, we

are not making them widely available to the public, like posting the

whole book to a website could. The book is available to fewer people

here than one put in a library.

Knowing your heart's pure intention, Vicky is enough to feel at peace

with Ramana, so it's hard to imagine David Godman having any

objections to your use of his book. After all, he edited and compiled

those quotes mostly from other sources himself. Surely the ashram

would be pleased to have Ramana's words read by a small group, as you

might read aloud were it possible for us to be together. (If anyone

might want to save those self-enquiry files, you can probably beat me

there, as I need to go to the store and do some other things first.)

Mostly Vicky, we have all been so blessed, and I can't think of how

anyone has been harmed. Please be at peace.

Love, Gloria

- Viorica Weissman

Monday, August 20, 2001 11:20 AM

Re: Vicky and fair use

Thank you , Mark & Dharma for your answers; I didn't mean the

usual quotes , I mean whole files containing whole chapters from the

same book made public on the Files option of a list; I uploaded

chapters , not quotes , on two lists ; I deleted them ; whole

chapters from the same book are not simple quotes , and the idea of

having done this without any permission bothers me ; that's my

problem now regarding my virtual on-line life, vicki.