COPYRIGHT NOTICE AND WARNING

The right-click function is disabled on all of my subpages.

The contents of these pages are Copyright © 1995-2003 by Todd L. Sherman/KB4MHH. All Rights are Reserved - including all rights to any unauthorized `derivative' works created by others using my pages as an original "template." When a person does this, the work they then create is called a "derivative work," and the original author STILL RETAINS all rights to that work. If I catch this going on, I WILL ask you to remove the pages from your site and your computer completely, AND for any profits that you made in any way while using my work for the period that you used it, if any profits were made. I will also demand that you replace the stolen pages at your site with a notice advising all visiting users of what you did, of who owned the work, and notifiying them of where my pages can be found.

Read and print as you please, for personal reference, but do NOT cut-n-paste my work and post it to your site claiming it as `your' work and effort (especially in an effort to try to draw my users away to your site in order to make a profit off of my work), or point directly to my subpages, bypassing the main front page.

This work is COPYRIGHT REGISTERED, and may NOT be used without permission.

Permission Is NOT Granted

That being said...NO. Permission is NOT granted for anyone to use this work for any reason whatsoever (other than for personal reference).

Why?...

  1. Call me vain, but I did this work; and I take great pride in it. I have a large user base and I am NOT willing to create "competition" with myself by allowing other sites to use copies of it elsewhere - even if you did intend to give me credit at the other site for the work. Someone did this before with another web page that I run, and the other site ended up taking my whole user base because that site happened to have a title that called the attention of the aimed-to audience better. I will NOT allow that to happen ever again. It you're a webmaster and people are asking you if they can use your pages at another site, I advise you to think twice about it - unless it doesn't really matter to you.

  2. I did NOT do all of this work...that is - the research, the time spent sitting bored to death in the local law library, opening a minimum of 50 law books, spending lots of money on photocopies, retranscribing everything into web useable form, creating and updating my lists, and losing many hours of sleep - just so that commercial, for-profit entities could then take that work, and transfer it to their own site in an effort to try to take my user base, affix their OWN copyright to the bottom, and try to make a PROFIT off of them. I meant for this work to be available at no charge, and at no obligation. I will fight to the last to make sure that that noble goal continues. I do not make any money off of this site. I do all of this of my own effort and kindness. But that does NOT mean that I cannot still copyright the work, and dictate how it is used now, or will be in the future. I claim full rights to this work. It is mine. I "painted" it. I spent all the time researching it. You did not. I will not allow others to use my work and claim any of the pride that I feel for it, or to claim any of the hard work I put into it.

  3. Commercial entities before you already beat you to the punch and ruined it for you, by attempting to steal my pages, before. (Two web sites run by one person: RadarBusters, and LaserBusters.) They gave me a real wakeup call to the world of the web and so I will not allow permission for anyone to use this site. I will not even consider it, now. I'm sorry; but again ... I shall reiterate ... "no." Permission is NOT granted, to anyone, for any reason, for any use.

  4. For the above reason, if you send me an e-mail requesting permission to copy my work to your own site, I will not answer it. I will ignore it. Bear in mind that my lack of response does NOT constitute "permission" to take it, anyway; and if I go to your site right after you sent the request, and find that - before I even responded, especially - you had ALREADY cut-n-pasted my work to your site (expecting me to just say "yes"), then you will receive no prior notice from me that I am upset ... except for the legal paperwork that you will receive in the mail. ...And I promise, I will go for broke, and ask for no mercy, and the highest possible penalties.

  5. AS WELL, I am a Certified Paralegal. If I find that you've stolen my work, and it goes to Court, I WILL - before I even ASK for court costs and other monies - demand "repayment" for my time and services. This means $500 per hour, with a minimum of $1500. Though, I spend a hell of a lot more than just THREE HOURS in the law library when I do this, and I reserve the right to ask for more. That's as much as a lawyer, yes; but this is MY work, MY time, MY web page, I OWN the copyright for it, and thus, I dictate the terms.

  6. This is considered your official legal warning notice.

Some Copyright Misnomers

  1. Some people believe that anything placed up upon the web is automatically placed into the "public domain" category. This is false.

    ALL web work is automatically assumed by our government, and by the world, to be protected by copyright laws - REGARDLESS OF WHETHER OR NOT A COPYRIGHT STATEMENT IS EVEN AFFIXED TO THE PAGE! UNLESS the document SPECIFICALLY STATES that it is in the Public Domain, then it is not, and you should ask permission, first, before you just "borrow" the work.

  2. That being said, "permission" does NOT mean sending an e-mail requesting permission, and then not even bothering to WAIT for a response from the web author. Before you can use something, it requires an affirmative RESPONSE; and if you receive no response at all, or a "no" response, then that means that you do NOT have permission to use that work. PERIOD.

    There are some people out there who actually believe that the web author has some sort of a legal obligation to respond, and that, if he does NOT respond, then this mitigates the person intending to use his work from any legal response, and/or that it means that the author doesn't care, and that it is then okay to use the work, anyway. That is false.

  3. Some people believe that it is okay to "borrow" someone else's work, make minor or major changes to the appearance, and to a few words here and there, and that this somehow makes the work "different" then, and "no longer the same," and thus, "no longer the work of the original author."

    That is also a myth. That is called a "Derivative Work," and the original author STILL RETAINS ALL RIGHTS AND PRIVILEDGES TO THAT WORK, INCLUDING ANY OF THE CHANGES YOU MAY HAVE MADE TO THAT WORK. He/she may even claim costs and damages against you, AS WELL AS any direct or indirect profits that you may have made using the unauthorized work.

  4. Some believe that because they are a part of a public service group of some kind, or that if their reason for borrowing your work is to aid in some form of public service, that their group is exempt from all copyright laws. They believe that it does not apply to them, because their work is public service. ...And who would be so mean as to take a public service group to court for copyright infringement! I mean...my GOSH! Who would be so cruel! (I'm being sarcastic, there.) They truly believe that they may take what they like and transfer it to their site and do as they please with it without having to ask any permission, and without giving any credit to where the information came from.

    That is also wrong thinking. They still have to ask permission. They still have to grumble like everyone else if they author says no. They may still have to pay some sort of fee, if the author says yes. And if they take or modify without permission, then they will still have to suffer the penalties if caught. They are not exempt from the rest of the world in the workings of copyright.

  5. Some people actually believe that if they receive a copy of a web page (or pages) from someone else via e-mail, that this somehow strips all copyrights from the web page or document, and/or that it then alleviates the person receiving it (and using it) from any copyright restrictions, and that it thus becomes "okay" to use.

    Again, that is a false assumption to make. The webmaster of RadarBusters and LaserBusters actually tried to USE this one on me, claiming that "a cop from Virginia" had submitted my web page information to him via e-mail and thus, he said, it was "okay to use." The infringement still remains on his site today, and I am forced now to resort to legal remedies because evidently his intent is to push it that far.

FAR TOO MANY users on the web have absolutely no clue what copyright is, and/or how to treat it when they encounter it. Some have no clue what it is. Some know that copyright is a protection of some sort, but don't know what the actual proper handling procedures are. Some don't know where copyright is to be watched out for. Some know all about it, but couldn't care less because they're in a hurry and just want to make a profit as fast as they can - by cutting and pasting some other guy's work; and they're perfectly willing to take the risk of using it for as long as they can get away with it - while hoping that they never get caught. Sad fact is...most DO get away with it.

Even the people who you would think SHOULD know about it ignore it on a daily basis. I'm, of course, talking about the Press. Take a good close look at some of the stories in the newspapers. Reporters constantly quote from copyrighted sources and then leave NO credit from whence the information came. Watch the TV news broadcasts closely. Every time your local TV news station borrows another news agency's clips and stories, and you see something blurred out on the bottom right, you are witnessing copyright infringement - now openly done in front of our faces on the air. They don't even CARE, anymore! When we do this in front of the public, children (this includes teens) see this and think that it must be okay to do. And children immitate.

I blame school boards for not thinking it important enough to "waste" budget resources for, and for ignoring the pleas of the few teachers who do clammor for it. I blame many teachers for not caring and for NOT clammoring for it, while knowing full well how important it is. I blame parents for not caring enough to look over their kids' shoulders when they do their homework, to make sure they are doing it properly. It's their JOB to be getting involved in what their kids are doing; but far too many parents try to use the excuse that they don't have the time! Well, if they knew that was going to be the case, then they shouldn't have had the kids in the first place! ...But they have them, regardless. I blame parents, again, for then complaining when their kids finally get caught cutting and pasting without giving proper credit where credit is due. It starts in the schools, and at home. That is where we must nip it in the bud.

I encourage educators to spend a LOT more time than they do now (which is near nil) in teaching students about copyright and infringements - what is okay and what is not - especially in regards to the relatively "new" world of the web. I encourage school boards to back the teachers, and to provide funds for the extra teaching required to get the word out about copyright. ...And it all needs to start sometime WAY BEFORE the college levels. It needs to start in elementary, middle and high school levels, so that by the time they get to college, it is second nature to the students. That is the ONLY way to stop this kind of thing from going on. When they finally get jobs requiring research work, they will then know how to properly quote and borrow, what can and cannot be borrowed, and how to credit the info if it is borrowed.

Every time I listen to the radio and I realize that everything that I am hearing is some redone version of someone else's work from long ago, I realize that - while it may indeed have been twenty-five years since that work was composed and the copyright laws no longer appliy to those works - there is still no originality in today's works. Everything is a copy of someone else's hard work. Noone thinks for themselves anymore, or bother's to take the real time create something truly of their own, that has not been done, before. Our minds are becoming lazy. It is very, very sad to see happening.

What is even sadder to see is how this kind of thinking is actually encouraged. Noone praises others for thinking on their own ... for composing something truly original. Too many "upper echelon" types encourage their minions to do the "quick and dirty job," to get it done fast by copying someone else's work. To credit the real authors of works is now considered a waste of time and otherwise useable "ad space."

Todd L. Sherman, Webmaster...


Mobile Scanner & RADAR-Detector Laws In The U.S.
by Todd L. Sherman/KB4MHH
Gainesville, Alachua Co., Fla.
E-mail: afn09444@afn.org
Last updated: December 27, 2002.

Copyright © 1995-2010 by Todd L. Sherman. All Rights Reserved.