A Little Levity For Labor Day in Prep for Lee

We're getting prepared for tropical something Lee (storm, depression, hurricane). I was surfing around and found this and thought you all would get a kick out of it. See, I do this "senior rant blog" thing, just cause I'm nearing that age and got to get it out of my system somehow.

http://seniorcitizenhumor.blogspot.com/p/blog-buddies.html

This guy runs a very funny blog, take a look at his links and other older bloggers, too. Sometimes we just need a break from the doom and gloom.

I was wondering the other day, What if they called for an Apocalypse and Nobody Came?

Heads Up to All Internet Posters

There is an alert out to all those who post articles, or do any copy and pasting to their web sites:

This article further explains the move into image infringement lawsuits as well. Don't right click and paste images, either.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/12/death-ray-lawsuits/

Apparently, there's a company called Righthaven. Its whole purpose is to buy the copyright to various articles from any given newspaper, then check the Internet for that article. If they find someone who has put it on their blog or website, they try to sue them. The federal copyright law allows fines or penalties of up to $150,000 per article.

Now, I would think they'd have to give you a warning, or a threat, or at least some way to avoid this huge fine. But no.

Apparently there doesn't need to be a warning, or a cease and desist letter, or demand to delete the article in question.

According to sources, Righthaven does this just for the money, no pretense that its for any higher purpose.

Of course, once we know this, we can be sure not to get into the trap.

I may have used some quotes when giving a book review, just so you all can get the flavor of the book.

I guess a person has to be very careful, there are money grubbers everywhere.

About 80 lawsuits have been filed so far, I'm told, against organizations like the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), the Democrat National Committee of Nevada, a real estate broker in Las Vegas, and FreeRepublic.com. More are expected to be hit by the end of the year.

Its never right to use someone else's work, copying and pasting into your site and not giving the rightful owner credit.

There is a "fair use" clause which allows people to use excerpts in reviews.

I have a book which is copyrighted. I hope people honor the law.

I am posting this for a heads up to anyone tempted to circumnavigate those laws, designed to protect intellectual property.