NSW Creating a Website - Copyright Issues?

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johna

Member
19 April 2016
4
0
1
I have created a website for people who collect or trade in magazines, which is a Wikipedia-style index of the contents of the magazine (I don't mean all the text from the magazine, just an index of the articles it contains, possibly including article title, topic, author, number of pages, etc),

As site members can enter this information in however they see fit, it is possible that they may enter the contents exactly as it is written on the magazine's contents page. They are also encouraged to submit a scan of the cover of the magazine.

I am concerned about infringing copyright for both the cover scan and in cases where the contents have been copied word for word onto the website.

I would also like to make it clear to users who enter this information that the information could be copied and used by anyone for any purpose. I don't want to "own" the rights to the information they enter, but I would like to ask for a link back to the website if people do share the information.

I was planning to use the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) licence, but I am unsure of the implications of applying this licence to content that users submit that may be a direct copy from the magazine.

If I use this licence then the users who submitted or updated the content are considered the author, right? And I need to maintain and display a list of these users on the page (or linked from the page)? Is there a license where the user submits the information without requiring credit but I can still require a link to the website if the information is shared?

Thank you.
 

Victoria S

Well-Known Member
9 April 2014
518
59
2,289
I understand that in most cases, simply using a small resolution thumbnail to advertise a magazine is generally okay, however, not sure of how you would get around reproducing the contents page. Perhaps you could take a photo of it with something else in the frame to upload, then users would own the copyright to their own photographs.