Replies

I think that's bologna.

I dont know how often you search the internet for things and how usefull that is to you, but "everything" out there worth searching for is copyrighted.

It is just as Illegal for you to download a graphic or an article and read it or use it, as it is to download music. Why shouldn't you pay for this material?

I would contend that if copyrighted stuff was removed from the internet, you would get rid if your internet connection. As would we all.

Even Freerupublic couldn't exist without fair use provisions.

Well, to some degree you are mixing things that are unrelated. I don't download an article from a website, I read it on their website with their accompanying ads, fees or other ways they support their site. Viewing material they put up on their site is not contrary to their own intended purpose, it is their intended purpose. Sending a link to the site to everyone you know is not copying... copying the text or graphics and sending that out without credit is illegal... and if you did it rampantly, you might get noticed. Whether the violation is worth the trouble is the governing factor.

FR fought a lawsuit about fair use of published articles, and we no longer can post full length articles from those publications that have bothered to sue... So full-length copying is not currently considered fair use by everyone! They make money from ad revenue. They need the hits to their site to get the big ad dollars.

Look, I am not on a moral high ground here, I copy stuff. But I do think the artists that create work for sale deserve to be paid if you want to enjoy their work. They work for money, same as the rest of us, and if you enjoy their work, you should support them. I just don't know how to stop it.