Re: Inquiry

As editor of a peer-reviewed academic journal, I can say that the situation you describe would not trouble me unless the quotes were unusually long or in some way libelous. Assuming you are in the US, 17 USC 107 ("fair use") covers any ordinary academic quote.

I'm not a lawyer, so don't take this as legal advice, but based on the situation you described, I think the editors are overly and inappropriately anxious. We need to work to keep and to exercise our rights to use quotations for scholarly and academic purposes!

Best wishes ... Michael

Prof. Michael Seadle
Director, Institute for Library and Information Science Humboldt University in Berlin
Editor, Library Hi Tech
Submissions: http://jade.emeraldinsight.com Location: Dorothenstrasse 26
Mailing address: Unter den Linden 6, 10099 Berlin Phone: +49 [30] 2093-4248
Fax: +49 [30] 2093-4335
seadle[_at_]ibi.hu-berlin.de

On Feb 15, 2007, at 5:25 AM, Herring, Mark wrote:

> Two professors of business have written an article based upon a
> study of MySpace. A graduate student logged on and read various
> posts. The article is about advertisers and social networks. So
> far so good. But now the journal editors, after accepting the
> article, are fearful that the quoted postings (very, very few of
> the total possible) will make them liable. All the posts are
> anonymous “ A post to MySpace argued that “……”
>
>
>
> The journal has asked the authors for some evidence that this does
> not leave them open to a lawsuit. Any ideas? I have sent them 5
> but want very much to hear what others have to say.
>
>
>
>
>
> MYHerring
>
> Dean of Library Services
>
> Dacus library
>
>
>
>
Received on Thu Feb 15 2007 - 21:50:50 GMT