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Pastimes : Investment Chat Board Lawsuits
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To: Jeffrey S. Mitchell who wrote (782)9/15/2000 9:30:05 PM
From: EL KABONG!!!  Read Replies (1) of 12465
 
Jeff,

This is the post by Mr. Worst that has been the subject of litigation.

Message 6542963

There are some lessons to be learned here.

First of all, Mr. Worst did not clearly attribute the posting to another party by providing a correct and complete URL to the original source. While (IMO) this action (alone) likely would not have been sufficient enough for him to have avoided the lawsuit, it most certainly would have been "heavy" documentation for his attorney to draw upon. As a word of caution to all posters, when employing a cut 'n paste post to quote someone else, whether it be a news article or merely quoting an opinion from another poster on another board, be sure to clearly post the referenced source. And also be sure to properly attribute the quoted material to the proper author.

Mr. Worst also failed to put any of his own words in the post that would have removed himself (and his personal opinions) from the meat of the disputed words. He should have (in his own words) said something along the lines of "I copied this from blah-blah-blah and that person's opinion is as follows...". He could also have added something along the lines that the original post was copied merely for ease of discussion within the SI thread. However, he failed to do anything of the kind. What you're attempting to do here is to clearly delineate what is your material from what is material presented and posted by someone else. It is perfectly permissible to quote others words that are in the public domain. Make certain that even a casual reader would understand that your post quotes someone else.

Mr. Worst also failed to date the copied material, and failed to acknowledge that more recent commentary may exist elsewhere that would have rendered what he copied invalid or obsolete. In other words, he failed to put a disclaimer in his post. He should have realized that what he was quoting was at a very minimum inflammatory, and therefore should have protected himself by using a disclaimer.

To his credit, Mr. Worst did not edit or interject any of his own opinions or feelings into the copied material, so that factor was in his favor. I know that we so often see someone copy something and intersperse (often crude) commentary about the author or the subject material. Let this be a warning that doing such might constitute a huge no-no.

KJC
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