Forum Moderators: not2easy
i found as it applies to this discussion at a very informative website...
WHAT IS NOT PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT?
Several categories of material are generally not eligible for federal copyright protection....Ideas, procedures, methods, systems, processes, concepts, principles, discoveries, or devices, as distinguished from a description, explanation, or illustration ....
this was found here...
[keytlaw.com...]
hope this sheds light on the conversation,
Ed
if this were the case, then just about every single research paper completed in college or higher that quoted a section from a copyrighted book and properly cited the reference would be considered a copyright violation.
Under the fair use doctrine of the U.S. copyright statute, it is permissible to use limited portions of a work including quotes, for purposes such as commentary, criticism, news reporting, and scholarly reports.
If my Web site was geared towards, say, analysis of humor, I could get away with using a "limited portion" of Dave Barry's article for critical or illustration purposes. But if I was using it for what most people would consider a commercial purpose, then my use (without permission) would be an infringement.
It may seem silly, but it's the state of things in the U.S.
If I understand this correctly, at least 2 of those firms ought to be sacked. (...) There are ways to calculate how large your sample should be to get a reliable result - that is, a result that should reoccur in 90%, 95% or 99% of similar investigations.
In theory you're absolutely right. But just because you read a statistic doesn't mean that it came from a reliable, reputable firm. The problem is, like I mentioned earlier, there are many more factors than just sample size that will influence the outcome of a survey. These variables don't necessarily make one survey more "right" than another one - but it can mean they end up being different. So the "facts" in each case may end up being different - because they're influenced by different things (wording of questions, order of questions in the survey, type of survey, yada yada).
Back on topic:
"Gartner Group research shows that 40% of sick days are taken on Monday's and Friday's" is a fact.
This is what I was thinking was the case.
And to piggyback on albert's thought ... I guess you could say, "I've read that 40% of sick days are taken on Mondays and Fridays."
If I were to use some content retrieved from a book on my site;
would I be at risk if I were to clearly state were the facts came from?
Seems like you're pretty well in the clear if you're going to attribute the source. Regardless of whether the content is fact or not! ;)
[eff.org...]
