What is copyrights, what's protected under copyrights, copyrights violations, fair use within copyright…etc… etc…

Time and time again, these questions and others like them have come under scrutiny within the scope of Gorean websites and writings as images and texts have been found lifted from their original sites and copied without permission and / notice or credits of the original artist or writer.

This also occurs outside of Gorean websites of course, but we shall deal here with the sides of these issues that affect Goreans.

Thanks to the links provided by Pantheus and Dreamer, I have spent the last week or so reading up on the subject of copyrights. I will not attempt here to quote laws but only to share what I have gathered on the subject in hopes of reaching a few more people and have them take another look at their sites and remove any material they have not obtained permission to use until they are able to do so.

To put it plainly and simply, nothing and absolutely nothing you find on the web is yours for the taking and copying. Much like you can not walk down the street and lift the signs by the stores and place them in front of yours.

Here are a few basic guidelines, to avoid problems and troubles on your site.

The ultimate safety warranty :

          Be original, create your own work, use your own artwork. It is more refreshing and enjoyable to read a new perspective, outlook then to land again on the same material/information to be found in every Gorean website.

Who is responsible for the contents of your site?

Ultimately, you and only you are responsible for anything represented on your site. This is even more serious, when you do not cite the source of your information or give credits for the contents not done by you.

You in violation of copyright laws if :

• You have any artwork on your site that is not yours or
• That you do not have written permission to use (licenses included)
• If you do not give credit for artwork which you have not created yourself.
• If you have any written material that is not yours or
• That you do not have written permission to use.

That you do not give credit for any written material not written by you.

• Do you have any arts or texts on your site that are not your own?

How do you check out material given to you?

           The simplest way it seems is to select a phrase from the text and do a net search for it, if it comes up you then follow the link and see if they match.

Have you a written permission to use that art… or text?

If you are given a text or artwork, by a person who claims it as theirs, have it in writing.

Make sure you have that person's email and name either next to their material, or readily available for when your right to display this material is challenged.

         Make sure that the person's email and name are valid.

Check periodically to make sure the email is still registered.

Try to obtain a valid phone number, after all its your site that will be taken down and you may even be sued.

If you are given a material by a third person "XXX said we can use this" obtain the email of the XXX and get direct permission.

Linking pages to your site

         Why clutter the web, with the same information over and over again? If you simply wish to make information available to others, use a link. No copyrights infringements, no abuse of fair use. I must caution you however that the courteous thing to do is still to ask permission.

If your site has been violated

      If you have had some material that has been stolen, or used without your permission, email the owner of the site, state your claim, offer any proof you may have of your claim.

     If the person refuses to remove or acknowledge (give you credit on the site) your material contact the server on which his/her site is placed with the same information.

If something on your site is challenged

      Take it down immediately, you can always put it back on later after your claim has been validated.

Giving credit

     Make credits clearly visible.

As I stated above these are just a few simple guidelines, that should safeguard you from the most common mistakes made in copyrights violations on websites, if you follow these simple guides, you will not have to worry about accusations and if you are accused you will be able to offer proof to your right to display the material on your site.

Remember, honesty and integrity are core values of the Gorean philosophy.

As always I wish you all well.

Rakella.

Rakella@usa.net

Tonight this girl watched a television program, not really a typical activity. The show was one of those humor/drama/soap opera types, but the thing that caught and held this viewer was the one direction the story line was taking. One of the men was having what modern society would term a "mid-life crisis". Striking out at his wife, friends, and co-workers in what to them must have been bizarre and strange ways.

This girl broke into a huge grin watching the events unfold. "I am tired of being a sensitive woman/man" He yelled. In a support group of similar men he decried the emasculation that women had effected on the males of society... springing to his feet with a boisterous rush of words proclaiming himself a MAN. In a later interaction with his "wife", he told her point blank that he was tired of catering to her. His words were that he was old-fashioned. He wanted kids, and a wife who stayed at home raising them, to cook, clean, and his final words... "To put my needs first".

This girl was riveted. Almost cheering him on. His "wife" proclaimed that he was going through "something", and that when the therapist finally figured it out for him, months from then he would realize that all he really wanted was out of the marriage and this was his excuse. Obviously, the writers haven't read the Gor books, or the ending might have been somewhat different.

It would be interesting to see what might happen to a man such as this if in the face of his raging at society and the emasculation he was feeling he were to suddenly discover the world of Gor. This girl would never presume to speak for the way men think, so really couldn't say if any of the men who call themselves Gorean have felt somewhat like this man did. The one thing this girl did think about though was how different our society would be were the men who face this situation to pursue those feelings instead of letting themselves be convinced that they are just having a mid-life crisis and need therapy.

In a later program, this time a sitcom this girl watched again. One of the main characters, a woman, proclaimed to another on the subway that in the face of equality women had given up the "little niceties" that make life a bit more convenient. The older woman stated that forty years ago on that subway a man would give up his seat for a woman, and now they were forced to stand. The "heroine" went on to state how much she missed men opening doors for her, pulling out her chair, etc. And her last comment to the woman was "I am not a lesbian, I just hate men".

This seriously made this girl think. Has so much damage been done to the men of our society that hating them is the only recourse a woman of earth has? This one knows from personal experience that finding a man who is intelligent, humorous, full of life, vigorous, joyous, and mostly strong, not physically, but mentally is tough work. Until this girl came to Gor she had all but given up on ever meeting one who was "all that, and a bag of chips". Here she has met many. Men who are uncompromising in what they want from a woman, who not only demand the women serve them, as our previous "hero" said putting their needs first, but expect it.

Far more than society will acknowledge women crave strong men. It is afterall, natural. Survival of the species demands that a woman search for the strongest male to mate with. It is instinctive, it is natural, and it IS inherent in every woman, Free or slave. It is also obvious that society teaches women to deny this urge. "Men must be gentle, loving, nurturing." " We as women have to teach them how to do that." "Find your feminine side." Personally, this girl would much rather "find" a man who is strong. This girl would trade the niceties of a subway seat, or someone holding the door open, or a man who instead, with his uncompromising MALE dominance brought his joy of life into existence and fought like hell to keep it regardless of what society has to say about it. A man whose very presence stirs the air around him, and in whose eyes one finds truth, happiness, and the knowledge that he found his feminine side.... at his feet.