grr.

[arethinn]

Hands up if you think it is unethical to show people someone's public livejournal post by copying and pasting it to a mailing list or something without first getting the permission of the poster to do so.

Right, me too (at least a little).

Now, hands up if you think it is unethical to show people someone's public livejournal post by giving them its URL without first getting the permission of the poster to do so.

No, me neither.

What is the deal with people thinking they can stop people from giving links to things they have publically posted? People who say "hey, you can't link to my website", or "you can't show anyone that post I made" on a public board where anyone random could have strolled by and seen it anyway? If you want to control who sees it, take advantage of the methods available to you for doing so. I am not violating your copyright or anything if I merely give a link to something you put in a public place.

Whiskey, tango, foxtrot, over?

Comments

[aaangyl.livejournal.com]

I think the second is totally okay, but the first is iffy, and personally I'd probably ask or check the journal/blog's policies.

[saizai.livejournal.com]

If it's public, it's public. Unless the person has implied that they consider their journal secret-by-obscurity. (Which, FWIW, I consider an inane policy.)

Linking privacy is downright silly.

Copy privacy is only marginally less so; the only exception I'd make is that of context omission, and the possiblity of post-facto access control.

[doltaghey.livejournal.com]

Surely if someone wants privacy they should keep locked posts. Personally I don't even see a problem with the copy/paste issue either, if the original LJ post is public and the copyer credits it properly (ie attributes it to the correct author and doesn't try to claim it as their own words). Again, if publicity is not wanted the post shouldn't be public in the first place. And materially there's no difference between posting the text, and posting the link to the same text.

(except, if the text is long it had better be behind a link or lj-cut, and not filling my friends-page)

[gaelfling.livejournal.com]

I believe it's the permission not asked that is most likely the sole issue, though I cannot be sure as I am not (at least I hope I'm not) the writer in question whose 'public' work has been C&P'd

and yes, web page authors ask that before you link you let them know where the link is coming from- who is linking to them

netiquette- simple respect for others in an electronic form ;)

[twopiearr.livejournal.com]

And see, I wouldn't even call the first one unethical provided full attribution was given.

[arethinn]

I think you've misunderstood the situation. I don't think that wholesale C&P is right without permission, and I do understand that if I put a link on my own web page to another web page, that some people like to know that that's been done (although I find it a bit odd - interlinking is the nature of the web and I don't think one should have to ask to link to public content).

However, in this case I posted a link to a public livejournal post on a mailing list.