Copyright Statement

  • CANADIAN-FAIR-DEALING-AND-U.S.A-FAIR-USE-NOTICE: This site may contain unintentionally reposted copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This could happen due to the fact, that not all internet textual material is marked whether it is copyrighted or not; therefore the textual material as such. Could be used on this website to advance understanding of spiritual religious matters, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes 'Canadian Fair Dealing', and in U.S.A a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, as well Canadian 'Fair Dealing Bill' C-32 and Bill C-11. The material on this for non profit websites is re-posted for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for a purposes of your own that go beyond 'Canadian Fair Dealing', or 'fair use'; you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

DMCA / Fair Use

Based on case law, the Fair Use Provision of US copyright law permits the copying of entire articles for the purpose of news reporting. However, to avoid DMCA disputes, it is our policy to remove or alter any contested items as quickly as possible. If you have a concern, please

  • I mention the source of quotes and articles where I know it.
  • I consult with the author of articles where I can find them. I consider them copyright holders, not their publishers. I will use Canadian Fair Dealing, U.S. Fair Use, Article 19 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and The Pentagon Papers; all explained below.
  • Where I can't find the author, or he or she is dead, I assume they would not mind their material reaching a wider audience.

  Most of the files at this site are in the public domain in the United States. This is because they were originally printed in the US and:

  • Their copyright has expired normally (they were published in or prior to 1922), or
  • They were published between 1923 and 1964 (inclusive) and the copyright was not renewed, or
  • They were published by the US Government.

In addition, books printed outside the US in or before 1922 are in the public domain in the US.

  Books and other content become public domain in different ways in different countries. So if you reside outside the US, you will have to use different criteria to determine if a text is in the public domain. In some countries, this is determined by the date of death of the author. For instance, in the United Kindom or European Union books become public domain 70 years after the death of the author. This means that some books are in the public domain in the US but not the UK. For instance, the book 'The Tarot Unveiled' was published in 1910 in England. This means that it is in the public domain in the US (it was published prior to 1922). However, the author, A.E. Waite, died in 1942. For this reason this book will not enter the public domain in the UK or the EU until 2012.

The non-original works incorporated in this website fall into the following classes:

  •   There is a principle in common law that, when private property is permitted for public use over an extended period of time, it cannot be thereafter be denied to the public. This principle is called public easement. In such manner have many trademarks passed into the public domain.
  •   Making portions of printed work available on the World Wide Web is equivalent to displaying it on the shelves of a library open to the public. Therefore it is covered by the Fair Use clause of the copyright law.
  •   Our purpose is educational: we do not seek financial gain from the ingenuity of others. Moreover, our hypertext presentation cannot not be considered a replacement for the printed volumes. We recommend purchasing the original work, if possible.
Comment Concerning Copyright:

  We share with many others the view that the act of displaying a printed document on the Internet as the equivalent of displaying the said document on the shelves of a library open to the public, but with the advantages that Internet publication can be accomplished at reduced cost and that the published items become accessible more rapidly and to a wider audience.

  Interested readers are encouraged where possible to buy the original document from the publisher, which being on the printed page is not only handier to read and to work with, but is more detailed and complete, and is more likely to remain on the purchaser's shelf a decade or two from now than is the electronic copy to remain on the Internet or on the reader's hard drive for the same length of time.
With respect to the internet reproduction of photographs or works of art it may similarly be said that the Internet versions are typically severely cropped and of low resolution in comparison to the original hard-copy versions, which again places the Internet version in the role of an inducement to the user to consult the hard-copy original for a more informative or edifying experience. It is acknowledged that in order to survive, publishers must be paid for their printed materials, and electronic reproduction of these materials in whole or in part is permissible only to the degree that it does not detract from hard-copy sales, and more particularly where it stimulates them.

   As the Internet versions of hard-copy publications are inferior in detail, completeness, and longevity it is not possible for the former to compete with the latter; rather, Internet versions play a supportive role for hard-copy publications, pointing to their existence and sparking interest in them.
Thus, the beneficiaries of Internet publication are primarily the reader who is given readier access to the posted materials, the author whose work is given broader dissemination, and the original publisher whose name is brought to wider attention.
In fact, Internet publication sometimes approximates, and plays a role similar to that of, promotional material that the original publisher would otherwise have to pay fees to procure, or that he in parallel already pays fees to procure.

Using principle in " common law system " called public easement.

  Relevant to the question of copyright might be the following laws on Canadian "fair dealing" and US "fair use," Article 19 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, and as well an excerpt on Fundamental Freedoms from the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms:

Canadian Fair Dealing
Canada's
Bill C-32 and Bill C-11

 29. Fair dealing for the purpose of research or private study does not infringe copyright.
   29.1 Fair dealing for the purpose of criticism or review does not infringe copyright if the following are mentioned:
      (a) the source; and
      (b) if given in the source, the name of the
          (i) author, in the case of a work,
          (ii) performer, in the case of a performer's performance,
          (iii) maker, in the case of a sound recording, or
          (iv) broadcaster, in the case of a communication signal.
   29.2 Fair dealing for the purpose of news reporting does not infringe copyright if the following are mentioned:
      (a) the source; and
      (b) if given in the source, the name of the
          (i) author, in the case of a work,
          (ii) performer, in the case of a performer's performance,
          (iii) maker, in the case of a sound recording, or
          (iv) broadcaster, in the case of a communication signal.
          Bill C-11, as Proclaimed in Force.
          Bill C-11 expands the availability of the fair dealing exception to uses done for the purposes of education, satire and parody.

U.S. Fair Use

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use

Section 107.  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 by 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.

Article 19 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights
 
ARTICLE 19.  Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.  (The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948)

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
 
FUNDAMENTAL FREEDOMS.

2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:
(a) freedom of conscience and religion;
(b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;
(c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and
(d) freedom of association.

...
Section 2(b) protects all forms of expression, whether oral, written, pictorial, sculpture, music, dance or film.  The freedom of expression referred to, moreover, extends to those engaged in expression for profit and those who wish to express the ideas of others, and to the recipients as well as to the originators of communication....  ...  The burden is on the person challenging government action to ... show that the activity in issue promotes at least one of the principles and values underlying the freedom.  Those principles and values are: that seeking and attaining the truth is an inherently good activity....  ...  The term "expression" embraces all content of expression irrespective of the particular message sought to be conveyed and no matter how invidious and obnoxious the message.

The Pentagon Papers

   Also relevant to the use of copyrighted materials on the Internet are precedents such as the publication by The New York Times and The Washington Post in 1971 of the Pentagon Papers — classified documents relating to the Vietnam War; as well as publication over the Internet of the Tobacco Papers.

   The relevance of the Pentagon Papers quotations lies firstly in that the freedom of dissemination of information which is not only prized, but is essential to the functioning — indeed the survival — of our society is not only a freedom of the press, but rather a freedom of dissemination of information through all media, including today's Internet. The freedom to disseminate information, thus, must be seen as a freedom not only of the press to expose any deception by anybody, but as a freedom by all to expose deception by all, and more generally a freedom of all to communicate to all.

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