I just read your recent open letters to Dr. Shi-Min Fang online and want to drop a line to express my opinion. In the letters, you state “One may copy only up to about 200 words, which must be placed in quotation marks and attributed to the original author……” Are you just ignorant? Chinese and English are totally different: one English word can represent several Chinese words or vice versa. Online blog is more likely to be chat than any types of formal paper. It would be ridiculous or very idiot to list reference.
By the way, where did you get these advices or ideas - "it never hurts you to credit everyone who might have contributed to your own ideas; it always hurts you to leave anyone out. It never hurts to obtain copyright permission, even if you may not need it; but it always hurts to try to get away without obtaining that permission". They are very educational and should get credit/permission with your argument.
Thanks and looking forward to hearing from you soon.
Thank you for your comments. I do realize how different Chinese and English are, which is one reason that I am trying to treat this controversy as an educational one. Copyright laws written in one country are obviously going to be difficult to apply in another when languages differ so fundamentally. So one of the questions we must answer is how to evaluate the extent of the material that one can use from a copyrighted writing in one language when it is translated into another. That is why I also suggested that a percentage basis might make sense. But perhaps there are problems with percentages, too. If you have any positive suggestions, I look forward to hearing them.
As for the advice, it derives from many conversations with many people over many years and observing what happens to people who act in one way or the other. I do not know that anyone has written it down previously, so I can't cite you a reference other than experience. If you are implying that my advice is copyrighted by someone else somewhere (which seems to be the point of your letter), rather than implying that I am fraudulently presenting my ideas as original to myself, I'd ask you to find me a copyrighted written source that presents my advice in just the way I did. Otherwise, I'll treat your message as a joke, which is what I hope you intended.
I believe LCDR Feng was trying to give you an hint that under certain conditions, one may copy a copyrighted work without the permission from the copyright owner, such as works for research and educational purposes. One of these limitations on the rights granted to the copyright holder is called "fair use" (US Copyright law section 107) (http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html). A more restricted version called "fair dealing" generally applies outside the United States.
There are three other important legal points which you may know already:
(1) Scientific research papers are very different from plays, movies, etc., under US copyright law. The National Acadmy of Science and National Academy of Engineering have formed a "Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy", and has published a guide that provides an overview of professional standards in research in 2009. You can find clear definitions of plagiarism, research misconduct, etc. For example, this policy guide says:
"Someone can make fair use of copyrighted material for nonprofit uses, such as research or education, but they cannot use the material in a way that would reduce its market value".
(2) In one of your letters you said: “One may copy only up to about 200 words". This is not correct. There is no number of words, lines, or notes that the US copyright law has specified. Important questions a court may ask you would be:
Is it a for profit competitor or not? Does this use hurt or help the original author's ability to sell it?
(3) The U.S. Constitution's copyright clause (US Constitution, Article 1 section 8) allows a work to be copied in the public interest to "promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts" without the permission of the copyright holder. Since the primary purpose of copyright is to foster the dissemination of knowledge rather than to protect the property rights of the creator.
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries; (为促进科学与有用艺术的发展,立法给予并限制作者与发明者相应的作品与创造的独享权的保护期。)
Now we are getting down to business! (现在,我们接近打开天窗说亮话的时候了!)
Please explain to me how Dr. Fang's use of my work is "fair"? Under fair use, he has the right to photocopy, translate, or summarize my article for his personal use; I know of no case in which it is considered legitimate "fair use" to reproduce a copyrighted work, translate it, or summarize it for the use of other people, which is precisely what Dr. Fang has done with my work by posting it on his website and reproducing the essay in his books. In addition, it is my understanding that Dr. Fang makes his living from his website and books and therefore that he is not using my material for a non-profit or educational purpose, but for profit. (请你为我释疑,凭什么说方博士(未经授权)使用我的作品是“公平合理”的?按照公平合理使用的原则,他有权影印,翻译,或总结我的文章为他个人使用(而不公开使用)。 可我从未听说过可以(未经授权)复制、翻译、总结重写受版权保护的作品,用之于众,而被认为是合法的“公平合理使用”,这恰恰是方博士所为, 将我的著作(以他的名义)张贴在他的网站上,并将它复制于他的书中。更有甚者,我的理解是方博士靠他的网站和出版书籍为生,因此他使用我的材料并非是非营利或教育为目的,而恰恰相反,他以之赢利。)
Second, while it is true that various organizations such as the National Academy, have provided their own versions of what constitute scientific fraud, none of these directives replace or override copyright law. In any case, I have not charged Dr. Fang with scientific fraud; I have charged him with plagiarism and copyright infringement. I don't see how the National Academy guidelines are relevant. (其次,各种组织机构,比如美国科学院,的确都提供了他们自己的定义科学欺诈的版本,但是这些指南都不能取代著作权法或凌驾著作权法之上。不管怎么说,我并没有指控方博士进行科学欺诈,而是指控他剽窃和侵犯版权。我看不出美国科学院指南与此有何关联。)
Third, there are, in fact, guidelines, at least in the publishing industry, about how many words may be used. I have written many book reviews and have been warned many times by editors not to quote more than a certain amount of a text. This is also something that editors in the US check when one publishes a popular article in a magazine; and it is something that editors check when editing scholarly books. Whether it is law or not, it is common practice. In any case, I'm tired of the issue of 200 words -- everyone who has addressed this issue has failed to address the rest of the paragraph which is about limiting the percentage of material utilized. Since all but a handful of examples of Dr. Fang's essay are directly from my article, I am charging that Dr. Fang's article is essentially 90% (or somewhere around that percentage) my work. (第三,事实上,合理使用他人文章内容的字数是有既定准则的,致少在出版业是有的。我写过很多书评,编辑们反复提醒我,引用别人文字内容要有节制,不得超过一定数量。这也是美国编辑们不论是在发表科普文章,或出版学术专著时都反复审核把关的问题。不管有否法文硬性规定,这已是出版业的行规。不管你们怎么想,我已经厌烦那关于200字的讨论了——所有争辩者都忽略了其后的基本原则是引用他人文章内容不能超过一定比例。鉴于方博士的文章除了少数例证外的绝大多数内容都是直接从我的文章获取的,我申明方博士的文章90%左右根本就是抄袭自我的著作。)
Finally, I am not a constitutional lawyer, but I sincerely doubt that your reading of the clause in the constitution can possibly be correct or it would be impossible for any academic to ever copyright (or to enforce copyright) on any of his or her work. Please think carefully about what you are arguing here, because the logical conclusion is that you do not believe in copyrighting anything that might be of educational value or which might be used for the pubic good. That would mean anyone could copy anything I write and claim it as their own without any legal or moral protections. Is this really what you want to argue? (最后,我不是一个美国宪法律师,但我怀疑你对相关宪法条文的理解是完全错误的,否则任何学者都不能对其作品申请版权保护(或执行版权)。请仔细想想你的论点是什么?按照你的逻辑,你认为任何可被用于教育或者对公众有用的作品都不能享有版权。这就意味着任何人都可以复制我写的任何东西并宣布是自己的作品而其无需承担任何法律或道义上的责任。这真的是你的立场?)