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This Website and its entire
contents are Copyright ©1998, 2003, 2005 by J. Jeffrey Bragg.
All rights reserved.
No part of this website may be reproduced or transmitted by
any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or by any information storage and retrieval
system, for any purpose (including club newsletters and websites) other
than personal educational use, without written permission
from the author. Photographs and graphics may not be
downloaded separately from the website or used for any
purpose. Theft of intellectual property is a serious offense
subject to prosecution under federal statutes and
international copyright laws.
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MISUNDERSTANDING ABOUT COPYRIGHT seems to be a problem these days. We've had a lot of trouble with unscrupulous people who seem to think that if it's on the WorldWide Web it's free for the taking, for them to use and abuse. For example, the "Sanjankah Dog Club of America" has appropriated large chunks of our SSSD Breed Standard 1995 to provide window-dressing for their wolf-hybrid "Chukchi Sleddog" scam; the "International Seppala Siberian Sleddog Club" (ISSSC) has repeatedly ripped images from this website and posted them to its own disreputable website to promote its attempted hijack of the original SSSD breed concept. There have been other similar instances, including some involving Siberian Husky breed clubs. We would rather not have to take legal action to protect our intellectual property rights from this kind of exploitation; it's said an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. So here is a brief explanation of copyright in layman's terms. (Disclaimer: nothing on this page is intended to offer legal advice or interpretation of national or international copyright law. This page is for information only and no liability will be accepted resulting from use of or reliance upon this explanation.)
- Copyright of original works does not have to be registered or applied for. It is automatic as soon as the work is written or produced. Registration is entirely optional and confers no rights that the author does not already have prior to or in the absence of registration!
- Copyright endures for the life of the author plus fifty years.
- Copyright applies to any original work: essays, books, articles, pamphlets, photographs, graphics, sound recordings, material on websites. (The only important exception seems to be book titles, which cannot be copyrighted.)
- The use of a copyright notice and the international symbol © are encouraged, but copyright is not affected by their absence.
- In addition to copyright, the law recognises what are called "moral rights" which are described by the Canadian government copyright office as follows:
"Even if you sell your copyright to someone else, you still retain what are called 'moral rights'. This means that no one, including the person who owns the copyright, is allowed to distort, mutilate or otherwise modify your work in a way that is prejudicial to your honour or reputation. Your name must also be associated with the work as its author, if reasonable in the circumstances. In addition, your work may not be used in association with a product, service, cause or institution in a way that is prejudicial to your honour or reputation without your permission."
THESE PROVISIONS OF COPYRIGHT practice mean that you may not appropriate or "rip" material (text or images) you find on this website and re-write or otherwise alter it to reflect your own opinions or to serve your own purposes (as SDCA and ISSSC have both done). They also mean that you may not download our photographs and use them for websites, teeshirts, sweatshirts, and coffee mugs. You may not reprint our articles and photos in club newsletters without written permission. You may not post our material on the website of your own organisation, using it for purposes "prejudicial to our honour or reputation."
WE ENCOURAGE VISITORS to our site to download documents for their own personal educational use! That is why we have the documents online. We are happy to provide this free educational material. In return, we ask you to respect our rights and not to make unauthorised and illicit use of the material we have provided for your information and enjoyment. Thank you!
An excellent article explaining current copyright law in clear layman's language is now available at Copyright Guidelines for the Web. Highly recommended!
