Copyright

Submitted by fyl on 2 November, 2006 - 07:12.

NicaLiving.com respects copyright law. Users of this web site need to recognize that Monos Media, S.A. has an obligation to remove material posted without permission.

In most parts of the world, the author of something automatically receives the copyright. What this means is that if you are not the author, unless you are granted the right to use that material, you cannot publish it here. Note that even if there is no copyright message in the material, the default is that it is under copyright.

How might you be allowed to user material that is under copyright? The material might include "terms of use", for example. Or, you could explicitly get permission from the copyright owner.

Under copyright law there is also a fair use clause that allows restricted use of material under copyright without permission. For example, fair use is commonly used for quotes in book reviews or if you want to discuss a specific point made in material under copyright. See the Book Reviews gallery here for examples.

What constitutes fair use is up for debate. Some, for example, claim that includes any educational use. While any makes no sense (everything is, in some way, for educational use) there is likely some middle ground. That's well and good but I don't want to get into a copyright infringement war nor do I want to be editing and deleting posts because of copyright considerations.

So, here's the official policy here.

  • By default, anything posted here is owned (copyright) by the author. The author, by the act of posting the material is granting Monos Media, S.A., owner of NicaLiving.com the right to use that material as they see fit.
  • If you wish to grant other rights (re-publication to others, for example, release information to the Public Domain) state that at the end of your post.
  • If you wish to post something with an existing copyright, secure the right to use the material from the copyright owner and include a note to this effect at the end of the post.
  • In most cases, linking to original material is permitted. I say in most cases because, for example, a direct link to an image that appears as part of article under copyright is likely not in compliance with copyright law.