Cut and Paste Confusion

[sfwx]

Could I please have clarification on what exactly is "legal" to cut and paste. I have included NWS discussions from our local office and now I'm not sure after reading this post that I am allowed to do so. "ALL cut and pastes from another source MUST have proper acknowledgement of the source. If they do not they will be deleted without warning and the poster may face an immediate suspension of a length to be determined by the staff. This is not a choice!!! It is a legal issue and we will enforce it diligently!" According to the above post, it says ALL cut and pastes must be approved which to me would include all satellite pics, model runs, maps, area forecast discusssions, forecasts from other web sites etc. Please clarify. Thanks so much.

Eric

[Chacor]

All NWS products, as works of the US Government, are in the public domain by American law.

[Windsurfer_NYC]

I look at this as less a copyright issue, and more of a referencing issue. I see many posts where people paste a paragraph from an AFD without mentioning what office it's from.

I've also seen some crop and pastes of model runs with no mention of which model or model run it's from -- just a zoom in of a frame showing a big storm hitting FL with the bug-eyes smiley, which only demonstrates how people put emotion ahead of facts and science.

[vbhoutex]

No where does it say that approval is needed for the cut and pastes. "ALL cut and pastes from another source MUST have proper acknowledgement of the source." What it does say is that S2K has a policy that information that is sourced from another location needs to be identified and/or linked to the source so there is no confusion where it is from. On some it is obvious where it is from, on others it is not and this is what needs to be identified. Much of what is posted here from other sources is copyrighted material and is public domain both.

I look at this as less a copyright issue, and more of a referencing issue. I see many posts where people paste a paragraph from an AFD without mentioning what office it's from.

I've also seen some crop and pastes of model runs with no mention of which model or model run it's from -- just a zoom in of a frame showing a big storm hitting FL ...

On another note, as I have also stated elsewhere in a post, many of the satellite pics, radar views, model runs or similar are posted with no explanation as to what they are or are about. Someone not versed in the weather would be hard pressed to know what they are looking at without at least a brief explanation of what is being shown. Help your newer weather geek friends learn!!

I hope this clears it up somewhat. If not feel free to contact me or another staff member concerning this.