May I use Texts of this Forum for my Master Thesis?

julelustig · Fri 28/07/2006 15:14:18

Hello!
Just new to the forums a had a good laugh passing the little "Test" the admins prepared for joiners.
I really enjoyed it (I'm administrating forums, too)!

Since I'm just beginning to write my master thesis under the topic

"Playful Net Discourses - Groups, Identities and Emancipatory Tendencies in Cyberspace"
(crude translation of the german title, sounds a bit bumpyÃ,Â

)

I thought you - that's the administrators as well as the members - would maybe allow me to copy some of the conversations here as example for forum politics, and cite the register test, too. It would be really a very nice example.

What do you think?
I can black out the names, if you care.

Greetings,
julelustig

SSH · Fri 28/07/2006 15:22:27

Catchy title.You should make a game out of it!

I think you should probably find some specific examples that you want to quote and ask all the people involved if they agree. And CJ, of course, since its his show.

julelustig · Fri 28/07/2006 20:29:46

Quote from: SSH on Fri 28/07/2006 15:22:27
Catchy title.You should make a game out of it!

*lol* Well, i'll think about it.
Concerning the rest of your post: i'll just do that. Thanks.

Alynn · Fri 28/07/2006 20:45:20

You don't have to black out my name... I'd like everyone to know how sick and depraved I really am...

jetxl · Fri 28/07/2006 21:05:38

Since this forum is open for public, you can copy everything. You don't even need people's permission (freedom of press is legally well protected).
The thesis will be eyeballed by a teacher and dumped in an archive. On the internet the forums are logged and can be read by everbody with an internet connection. So all claims of plagiarism and privacy breaches are void.

DragonRose · Sat 29/07/2006 22:01:16

Jet: That's the way a lot of people THINK things work, but just because you think it doesn't make it so. For the sake of copyright laws, it is required to have permission to reprint just about anything longer than 15% of a full document, more than a single chapter, or to reprint an entire web page (not site, page).

If you don't have permission to reprint and try to publish for a thesis, you can get your academic standing revoked. That's bad.

Las Naranjas · Sat 29/07/2006 22:41:11

Fortunately I think juleustig knows all this, and is here on the forum to learn about online identities and social behaviour, which we exhibit, rather than law, which we only presume to know about.

Evil · Sat 29/07/2006 22:46:13

But this is a public forum, so do you have to get permission for each user quoted? Or can CJ just give the approval because he has "ownership" of the forums and everyone chooses to post here?

Nikolas · Sat 29/07/2006 22:50:57

As far as I know, while registering I didn't sign anything that mentioned anything about copyright tranfer. So I have to assume that I still hold copyright to my words, works, musics, poems, the wonderful story I recently wrote for MashPotato, etc...

There is a difference between what is public and what is free to copy and use. Heck, if you go to a cinema and watch any movie, you can't go and use footage from the cinema!

Simple as that. If you want to use something from the forums, you have to ask for it personally.

At least that's my take.

But of course I'm 100% (99.9%) sure that noone will mind their post being used in a Masters thesis! Heck I don't mind!

sergiocornaga · Sun 30/07/2006 00:01:25

Asking permission can't hurt. And if they say no, print it anyway!

DragonRose · Sun 30/07/2006 05:30:02

Quote from: Las Naranjas on Sat 29/07/2006 22:41:11
Fortunately I think juleustig knows all this, and is here on the forum to learn about online identities and social behaviour, which we exhibit, rather than law, which we only presume to know about.

Well, Canadian copyright laws I DO know about- I was employed as a copyright clerk here in the wonderful country of Canada until just a few short months ago.

Anyway, I was responding to the issue raised by Jet, stating that julestig didn't need permission to reprint things found on forums. I wasn't informing her, I was informing him.

Bah. I'm just a bit drunk, sorry if this is coming off as confrontational. Imagine a string of smileys here to make everything better.

Las Naranjas · Sun 30/07/2006 08:36:18

Oh don't worry, there was no insult directed at any Canadians.

jetxl · Sun 30/07/2006 11:04:27

DragonRose, I was referring to the use of quotations, not copying text of others and claiming it as your own.

Steel Drummer · Mon 31/07/2006 05:06:20

Heck, while you're at it, why don't you copy this little discussion going on here?

ms_greenjeans · Sat 05/08/2006 12:01:57

Well, I'm currently working on my Master's on CMC & net dating. The material consists of 300 (or so) dating ads - and I sure didn't have to ask permission from all those lucky chosen ones. Didn't ask anyone, to be precise. I assume some romance-seeking people in the UK don't mind if a puny Finnish girl quotes them in her insignificant thesis. If it's going to be an international best-seller, then I'm in trouble I guess

On the other hand, a friend of mine did her thesis on CMC also, she used e-mails from her study group - she had to ask permission from the whole group.

Good luck with your thesis, anyhow!

Radiant · Sun 06/08/2006 11:23:08

I don't think it's particularly problematic if you quote people from a public forum in an analysis of said forum; this is covered under the "fair use" clause of copyright law. Similarly, we quote one another on these forums without having to ask permission for that.

That said, asking us here is definitely the nice thing to do; and you should (of course) make it clear who you're quoting, and not copy/paste lengthy essays that people occasionally post on forums.