Quick question re: Reviews forum

[Adam Tyner]

sfsdfd posted the following earlier today:

Hendrik: Please don't simply provide a link to a review posted on another website. This would be OK if you also cut-and-pasted the review, so please do this in the future.

Though I understand why simply posting links to other sites may be discouraged, is it really kosher to recommend copying and pasting reviews from other sites in their entirety? This would seem to be a practice that would be highly frowned upon. Perhaps I'm in the minority, but I would personally be somewhat irritated if people were copying reviews I'd written (not that anyone ever would ) and posting them elsewhere without my consent. That doesn't seem very courteous at all.

[Adboy151]

I agree with you with on the whole cut-and-past thing (that's reprinting without permission in my book), so I'm not 100% sure what he meant.

I imagine some of us will be reviewing the situation with off-site links in the Review forum, so hang tight.

- C

[twikoff]

Originally posted by ctyner
sfsdfd posted the following earlier today:



Though I understand why simply posting links to other sites may be discouraged, is it really kosher to recommend copying and pasting reviews from other sites in their entirety? This would seem to be a practice that would be highly frowned upon. Perhaps I'm in the minority, but I would personally be somewhat irritated if people were copying reviews I'd written (not that anyone ever would ) and posting them elsewhere without my consent. That doesn't seem very courteous at all.

just out of curiousity.. since you are a dvdtalk reviewer..
what would you think, if someone from another website copied and pasted one of your reviews into their forum... and included a dvdtalk link, along with giving you credit for the review?

most people wont bother with links, so the information would be missed by them.. at least posting the review, gets the information out.. and if people enjoy the review, they might go through the trouble to actually check out the link..

in my feelings.. its ok to do this type of thing in a non formal forum type situation.. as long as a website is not using this review as part of their own real content..
its almost impossible to protect intellectual property on the internet.. but crediting the source with a link seems to be an appropriate course of action if you are going to just copy and paste.

[Adam Tyner]

Originally posted by twikoff
just out of curiousity.. since you are a dvdtalk reviewer..
what would you think, if someone from another website copied and pasted one of your reviews into their forum... and included a dvdtalk link, along with giving you credit for the review?

I wouldn't approve of that either. I write reviews for DVD Talk and no one else. I have no problem if someone decides to quote a couple of paragraphs from one of my reviews and uses that as a jumping point for discussion. I don't think it's cool to copy the entire review, regardless of any credit I may or may not receive. It's not just some excessive need for control on my part (I'm aware that Geoff 'owns' my reviews and can distribute them any way he sees fit); I feel equally irritated when I read a forum and an entire review from DVD File or The Digital Bits has been posted.

I very much disagree that people don't bother with links. I'm not sure if you're taking your personal thoughts and feelings and extrapolating, but I very frequently see discussions arise on this and other forums over content in a review after someone posts a link. In fact, I would say that get the most feedback after a link has been posted elsewhere.

[twikoff]

Originally posted by ctyner

I very much disagree that people don't bother with links. I'm not sure if you're taking your personal thoughts and feelings and extrapolating, but I very frequently see discussions arise on this and other forums over content in a review after someone posts a link. In fact, I would say that get the most feedback after a link has been posted elsewhere.

actually, I prefer to click the link and read the story at its source, rather then what has been copied over..
but I guess Ive just gotten use to the attitude of our lazy brothers and sisters in the otter farm that need to be spoon fed the stories, rather then clicking the links.. it seems to be the general attitude, that if you post a link to a story, you should also include the story in your post.

[G. Noel Gross]

It's always bugged me to see threads in the Review forum where folks just post URLs to reviews. At the very least I'd like to see folks say how feel about the DVD/Movie before plugging a review (often on a competing site). That's been my personal practice when pimping my DVDTalk reviews.

I'm glad to see a moderator finally addressing this issue -- even if we need to debate the policy further.

[Blade]

Originally posted by G. Noel Gross
It's always bugged me to see threads in the Review forum where folks just post URLs to reviews. At the very least I'd like to see folks say how feel about the DVD/Movie before plugging a review (often on a competing site). That's been my personal practice when pimping my DVDTalk reviews.

If I haven't seen a movie/DVD yet, but I've read a good review of it, I'll post a link to that review to help out the person making the request.

But if it's your own review on your own site that you're linking, then what you've stated (posting a mini-review or summary along with the link) was the DVD Review forum policy. I haven't been there on a regular basis in a long time, so this may have changed.

But like Adboy151 mentioned, we are reviewing this and will be posting a clarification in another day or so.

Thanks to everyone for their patience.