Copyright and Fair Use

All information provided on this site is copyrighted by Gregg Miner, with the exception of Forum messages which are public domain. All images used within this site are copyrighted by Gregg Miner, unless copyrighted by the original image owner.

"Copyright" refers to legal protection for works of authorship. In the USA, such protection is automatically provided to authors, and no registration is required. Therefore, this web site and the material contained therein, is automatically under copyright protection in USA. A good overview is the circular: United States Copyright Office: Copyright Basics. Copyright protection laws vary by country.

"Fair Use" is a provision in the US Copyright law which allows use of copyright material for certain purposes. Based on the "Fair Use" provision, as an educational, "not-for-profit" entity, this web site is entitled by law to use the photographs, quotations, and other source material contained herein.

However, when requested by certain institutions, I purchase images and pay required use fees. Images on this site include, at the end of their file name, the name of the person, author, or source from where the image was obtained. These sources may or may not be the copyright owners of the image, and are accurate only so far as I have been able to determine. Certain images are accompanied by full owner credits, where requested. Those images taken from books, web sites or other published sources without express permission are reproduced here for research purposes only per the Fair Use provision above, and are displayed at low (72dpi) resolution only. If anyone believes an image belonging to him or her is mis-credited, or violates his or her use policy, please contact me for correction or removal.

§ 107. Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use
"Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include —

(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;
(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work."

- Copyright Law of the United States of America and Related Laws Contained in Title 17 of the United States Code, Circular 92, section 107.