Legal Question in Technology Law in New Jersey

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For certain, you cannot copy and use the information from this site. There may be others that are less restrictive.

One characteristic of law in the U.S. is the preservation of intellectual property. In fact, the right and ability of the federal government is actually protected by the Constitution in its original text.

The rights regarding most typographical matter are governed by Title 17 of the United States Code. This is commonly referred to as �The Copyright Act� although, like most of the U.S. Code, it is actually a compilation of a number of different acts.

The copyright law of the U.S. gives the author of a copyrightable work the exclusive right to copy that work and to make derivative works (among other things).

Your current problem arises because of a change in the copyright law that occurred relatively recently. For many years, the hallmark of U.S. copyright protection was that of notice. Copyright was obtained when the work of authorship was fixed in a tangible medium, but, as a practical matter, it was also depended on a copyright notice such as �copyright, 2005, John Doe.� Because of a compromise in international law, in part to secure the agreement of the French to laws protecting integrated circuit design, the U.S has adopted the European view of copyright law. That essentially means that you can�t tell from looking at a work whether or not the author claims any rights in it. If that sounds difficult and unworkable to you, you�re not alone.

You may be able to link to another site. The convention seem to be that authors will permit you to direct others to link to their site. Copying and re-publishing the information is another matter altogether.

The bottom line is this: Use or publish whatever information you have only with the permission of the author. Don�t appropriate it for your own use or assume that you can. If you are a teacher or using the information for governmental or educational purposes, there are some exceptions. There are also some mandatory licensing rules for music and similar works. If that is a critical issue for you, get some professional legal assistance from someone who understands your precise needs.