Can I support my opinion by quoting on an Internet forum?
Can I support my opinion by quoting on an Internet forum?
So, when chatting to other people on a forum, am I allowed by the law to quote some extracts from scientifical journals/articles?
Hi denalo,
Yes that's perfectly OK. There is a new-ish (2014) amendment to the law which provides an exception for the purposes of quotation. It is called a fair dealing exception and as the term implies, it only applies if the usage is 'fair', that is to say you quote enough to make your particular point but not the whole or a substantial part of a scientific paper. And the second important stipulation is that you must cite the source of the quotation. It is most likely that if you wanted to add weight to your argument, you would naturally do this, but make sure that you provide sufficient detail so that someone else can find the source paper etc and check that you have quoted verbatim and have not selectively edited the quote to suit your argument!
Although perhaps it is not relevant to your question, there is also a special category of quotation relating to abstracts of scientific and technical papers published in journals, which allows them to be quoted in full without infringing copyright in the abstract or the underlying paper.
Yes that's perfectly OK. There is a new-ish (2014) amendment to the law which provides an exception for the purposes of quotation. It is called a fair dealing exception and as the term implies, it only applies if the usage is 'fair', that is to say you quote enough to make your particular point but not the whole or a substantial part of a scientific paper. And the second important stipulation is that you must cite the source of the quotation. It is most likely that if you wanted to add weight to your argument, you would naturally do this, but make sure that you provide sufficient detail so that someone else can find the source paper etc and check that you have quoted verbatim and have not selectively edited the quote to suit your argument!
Although perhaps it is not relevant to your question, there is also a special category of quotation relating to abstracts of scientific and technical papers published in journals, which allows them to be quoted in full without infringing copyright in the abstract or the underlying paper.
Advice or comment provided here is not and does not purport to be legal advice as defined by s.12 of Legal Services Act 2007