I was wondering if it would be like, morally or legally or whatever way, wrong if I copied and pasted people's poetry off the Creative Writing and Poems board, just to my own Word file for me to read. I even put a disclaimer in the file saying I do not claim to own any of the following poems, they were written on this website by other people, blah blah blah...

you see, I'm a huge poetry nut and I'm composing all these collections, And I'm sure some of you might say I should ask for permission or whatever, I guess I should, but that would take so long...What do you think?

Perhaps asking the original poster would be a good place to start...?

I think if you are going to publish it you have to give credit where its due, use references

there isnt anything wrong with duplicating material for people to read, I Assume it was WRITTEN for people to read if you indeed read it yourself

the only issue is passing work off as your own, you HAVE to reference the authors,,,

If it were me, I would take the time to ask permission. You probably don't know if they are copywrited. Besides, each person you ask, ask them if you can do it anytime. Then you only have to ask each person once.

The fact that you are asking tells me that somewhere inside you feel it's worth asking, so you'll feel good about yourself doing it the right way.

Just my opinion.

it's posted on a public forum. people here post a lot of stuff off of photobucket, lyrics sites, and many news sites. if it is for your own personal use, i don't see the need to get permission from every poet. if you plan on printing it, or distributing it, or displaying it, something other than personal use, giving credit is the fair thing to do. unless you are printing something lex, or simone wrote, there may be royalties involve there

Ya' know most artists are givers by nature... it's just the way of things. No need to over-think that part of it.
And while c/r issues and the litigeous nature of the the day are pertinent... what about just a level of common respect?
I know that we shouldn't assume or expect anything... from anyone, anymore, but it is so off the mark to ask why wouldn't you just ask?
Why is that so far removed from your thinking?

Btw, I applaud you, in tht you would be willing to pass on works that you find pleasing... I hope that you do more of it.

I would ask permission from the OP. It is simple courtesy, and some may find annoying, but the truth is that there are copyright issues involved.

I think most often, people will have no problem with what you want to do. After all, it is a form of flattery. Still, someone who is serious about writing may simply want to keep track of how their works are utilized.

Basically, original works posted on the internet fall under a form of common law copyright. Since information is available as to the time and date which it was posted and by whom. It may not be registered with a formal copyright, but it still has some level of protection under the law. At least that is my understanding from what I researched about a month ago.

You can copy my poem if you like. My permission is granted.

It's called "I can fly"

©

I've written six books in the past few years, and I've posted a lot of poems, short stories, even book excerpts in the Creative Writing forum. And it's all there for people to read, yes.

As a practical matter, I personally have no problem with someone copying it into Word for their own private readings later.

As long as no attempt is made to resell the material or to claim it was written by somebody else, I don't see any real issues here. It is copyrighted material, so that can play into the equation in some scenarios.

And heres mine. I can fly,high up inthe sky whithout a reason why. ..ithink itsweet ofyou2ask permision. The authors wont mind when you wanto reread it. Only wen uwanto publish there wl be legal isues. I like those that respect others

Mine were written from love or pain,,and for the ones on here who I care about and have as my friends,,I feel the same as Lex as to them being used to make money off of,,or to take and make them NOT my making of them,,,other than that,,copy save, read,,show..
If they move your heart,,that was their design.....

I was going to say that if someone publishes something original, then they have copywright over it, even if it's published under an alias.

So if you don't secure anyone's permission... then you are committing a misdemeanor, for which you can be sued in civil court.

But if you publish your collection under an untracable alias, such as on a website, then you are scot free. The owners of the poetry are not going to hunt you down, because they won't know that their poetry was published elsewhere, and they can't trace you. In order to sue someone, you have to serve them an paper, under many names, in Canada it's called "writ", which notifies them that you are taking them to court, and it states the reason.

So if they can't serve you a writ, they can't touch you.

On the third hand, if you copy them just for your own purpose, the copyright law still applies. You can be sued.

If you name the author, or their alias in future publications, that's nice, but it won't exempt you from the jurisdictional copyright laws.

And the only person in existence in recent history who took this seriously, by suing people who quoted him, even just one-liners, is Woody Allen.

He is certainly very quotable, his quips are priceless, witty, funny, and yet you don't see them around because he sues those who quote him. So I hear, don't name me please as the source.

Everyone else... I don't know, sure, if there is money in it, or some artistic stake. You don't know who the people are, they can effect to put you in jail if you can't caugh up the $400,000 in punitive damages for copying their work.

Yes, indeed, you don't need to publish it, it's enough to copy it, and bang, you are in violation.

But there might be a loophole. You know how we can quote each other by clicking on a link "quote" on these forum posts? Well, that may be your saviour. This means that the site owner is accessory to the copyright violation, and you will be too small fry to come into play. Or else the "user agreement" on this site will tell you that you agree to get your words copied, which everyone signs, so there is no violation -- everything on the site is free game.

UNLESS the owner also has it in the user agreement, that everything anyone publishes here on this site, or on the forums, becomes the copyright of the site owner.

Best to read the entire blasted "user Agreement". I read about three of them in my entire life when I was supposed to read about four thousand of them. I was mighty surprised what I found. Such as:

1. eBay has the right to turn you over to police.
2. FaceBook forces you to exempt it from losing face.
3. Indigo.ca makes you agree that you will fart ten times every day while you are using their site, AND in the company of a Canadian.
4. uTube makes it illegal to sell drugs on the site, sexual pornography, religious paraphernalia, or secular prophylectics.
5. Windows 8 has a clause that you allow a delegation from Microsoft to enter your house, and each time get finger-****ed by all members of the delegation. (Luckily each member of the delegation has only one member.) This is just to avoid potential legal problems for them arising from an already existing and ongoing problem with the software.

P.s. I uphold the copyright for this post. NOBODY is allowed to quote, copy, manufacture semblances, or fax, scan or electronically break down and reassemble this post without prior written permission by the author. (That is me.)

I thought all this would be considered PD.

If you went back to 07 or so you would have a ton.

Tell em I said that iam4u said that nicelady said that Lex said that Tribbles said that MrBiscuit said that action said that Teditis said that klc said that ese said that lucy said that msharmony said that wux said he's not sure.

you can use mine

Yes, that would be wrong, legally. You must have written permission from the owner to copy and paste (reproduce)anything that is not yours.

Poetry in the age of Alexander Pope or perhaps Edna St. Vincent Milay? Or just some crap written over a urinal?

Thanks for all your responses.

I did not and do not plan on publishing anything for money, like I said, I simply want to copy and paste poems into word documents for me to read, and in the documents I give the credit to the authors, I even go so far as to say it's off this site, give their username and the date it was posted.

For those who are saying it's illegal period, that just seems stupid to me, totally stupid and inane. It makes sense that it's illegal to plagiarise or outright steal from other people and claim it's yours, but what is the big deal about copying something for personal enjoyment and even giving credit? It's a frikin forum for crying out loud, it's not officially published and the people choose to post in here so it's possible anyone could come along and simply copy the words and no one would know. At least I'm asking and not just doing it, I didn't have to ask.

I thought copyrighted stuff was officially published books and magazines, stuff like that, not regular people on a free website. Seriously, I don't get it.

C/R stuff is big business these days.... lawyers make a living off dealing with that one thing, alone.
I was referring to a baser thing... a curteosy.
But I've also been told that my expectaions are too high, sometimes.

Do whatever seems right in your own mind... no need to worry about what the artist thinks. Other than whatever they posted that you enjoyed... what's their opinion matter, right?

Yeah. Lawyers suck.

i agree with you on the courtesy thing. But like I said, I pretty much want to save every poem on that forum, that I like anyway but I'm not picky, and it would take too long to ask every person. Some wouldn't even reply, and some might say no, and then I might really like the poem and badly want to save it but then I can't...I might as well just do it

i was getting the impression that the op had already copied and pasted and just wanted reassurance that his decision to so was justified. is that sarcasm i detect in your post mister