Howdy, Peter's fair-use argument would be my argument. Tho... I'm not a lawyer either... :) Emily presumably isn't selling her thesis; nor is she distributing it for commercial gain. In fact, she's not redistributing the work as work, per se, but rather as an object of study that is included with the actual work that's being distributed (her writing and analysis and commentary about the work). Blizzard has a similar terms of service agreement with WoW. Many, many scholars used WoW screenshots in their research both with and without permission, the latter probably making a fair-use argument. Also, I have no idea if being in Taiwan changes things. mark On Tue, Jul 10, 2012 at 5:13 AM, Peter Gloviczki <glovi002@umn.edu> wrote:
Hi, Emily and all,
Could Emily make a fair-use argument? Something along the lines of--this information is publicly available, and for research purposes, it should be permissible for her to include the screenshots with proper attribution--I'm not a lawyer or a legal scholar, but perhaps some that are on this list might be able to comment?
Peter
On Mon, Jul 9, 2012 at 10:45 PM, Emily Liu <b941020045@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear All,
While doing my research on the online forum-based interactive gaming site ( www.gaiaonline.com), I have encountered another problem.
The site's Terms of Service mention that "The visual interfaces, graphics, design, compilation, information, computer code, products, software, services, and all other elements of Gaia Online provided by Gaia, including without limitation any artwork, Gaia virtual items, Gaia Gold, Member Submissions, Gaia Member Online Accounts or User IDs, or visual art and any combination thereof (all of the foregoing, collectively, the "Materials") are protected by copyright, trade dress, patent, and trademark laws, international conventions, and all other relevant intellectual property and proprietary rights, and applicable laws. Except as expressly authorized by Gaia, you agree not to buy, sell, license, distribute, copy, modify, publicly perform or display, transmit, publish, edit, adapt, create derivative works from, or otherwise make any unauthorized or commercial use of the Materials. You agree to abide by all copyright notices, information and restrictions contained in any Materials." Yet I need to include screenshots of the forum and user avatars in my thesis to illustrate my research site and let others understand how forum-based role playing is conducted.
I have tried to get authorization to use the site's images by writing to their usertalk email, public relations email, and the site moderator, but received no replies. In this case, can I still include screen capture images in my paper? How should I deal with the issue of copyright or authorization?
Thank you
Emily
--
Min-Ju Liu (Emily)
M.A. Student in Applied Linguistics
Department of Foreign Languages and Literature National Sun Yat-sen University _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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-- Mark Chen, PhD | Post-Doctoral Scholar | @mcdanger | markdangerchen.net University of Washington | LIFE Center | Inst for Science and Math Ed | Center for Game Science This was sent from a PC with a full-size keyboard; misspellings and brevity are entirely my fault.