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Is getting the author's permission enough?

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N

nexius

Guest
What is the name of your state? ... Canada

Hi everyone. I just discovered this site -- exactly what I was looking for! I tried reading a book about copyrights but it didn't really give me an answer. Hopefully somebody here can take a minute to help me

Anyway, my problem:
I just recently finished a web site that publishes tutorials on 3d game developing. I wrote it using php and mysql for simplicity, but soon realized that I could write a simple script that could make it very easy to add tutorials from other sites to the database.

The result: http://www.3delement.com/newsite
It may be down (the server isn't very reliable). I haven't launched the site yet since I'm not sure how to handle the copyrights. I questioned one of the sites where I got most of my tutorials from about it and they told me to take all of their's off. (they didn't literally say they would take legal action but it was implied)

This site I talked to also has a database of tutorials, but none of the tutorials were written by the actual staff.... It's all user contributed. So since the copyright owner is _always_ the author and not the publisher (according to this book I read) isn't it true that they can't actually do anything to me?

My original plan was to store tutorials across the net (images and all) so that I would not have to deal with broken links... it's also nice to have it organized in one place...

I credit the authors for each article and if an author doesn't want their tutorials posted then I just request that they contact me. Is that also ok? Or do I really need their permission first? I think most authors would be happy to see their tutorial published so it would be a pain to contact each one

I realize this forum is mostly for american law but... most of the sites that I'll be taking tutorials from will be american and I think in terms of copyright law, the two countries are pretty similar

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I really appreciate any help
 
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N

nexius

Guest
This is related to US law though, since the original sites are based in the US

Come on... I just want some general advice
I have no idea how dangerous what I'm doing is!
 
N

nexius

Guest
If somebody could just tell me whether the sites offering the tutorials have any rights to them or whether the copyright is completely controlled by the author that would be very helpful

Please. This is important to me
 

I AM ALWAYS LIABLE

Senior Member
My response:

What you're not understanding is that you're performing your acts within Canada. I don't know, and I'm not sure if anyone here knows, what the correlation U.S. Copyright has to Canadian Copyright laws. There are International Copyright laws and, for that, you'll need an International Copyright attorney's opinion.

It may seem "simple" to you, but there may be certain case law from each country that has its own particular nuances that could have a dramatic effect on how you conduct your business in Canada.

We can't help you.

IAAL
 
N

nexius

Guest
Alright, fair enough :(

Cool site anyway. Too bad there isn't a canadian equivalent
 

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