Talk:Dennis O'Keefe

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You don't see a copyright problem? The page is almost word-for-word from the IMDb entry. -- Zoe

[edit] Copyright

Moved from Wikipedia:Village pump

I am new to Wikipedia, and perhaps I don't have a good understanding of copyright issues, although I have read a good bit about it here. I recently needed a biography for Dennis O'Keefe, the actor. I couldn't find one here, so I read two or three and wrote one myself. I thought that it wouldn't be a problem as long as I wrote it in my own words, which I did. Today I went to the page and someone had deleted it with a note stating that it was a badly reworded copyright violation of the one at www.imdb.com. Some of the information in mine is, of course, the same information that is in the one at IMDB, but it is not a direct copy. I wrote it myself in my own words. Is this still a copyright violation? (susanth)

If it's truly rewritten, then it's fine; I haven't looked at the two to determine if they are so close as to be considered copies, but I will. It's a tricky issue: facts aren't copyrightable. But the specific words used to express them can be, and a particular selection of facts, or a particular ordering or presentation, or anything else that might be considered "creative" can be. So you may have to do a little more than just reword sentences if you otherwise follow the content and structure of a single source. LDC

Thank you. I would appreciate it if you would look at them both, and let me know what you think. I truly did not intend to violate copyright. (susanth)

My understanding of it is that if you rewrite something in your own words it's very difficult to breach copyright. Copyright applies to the "creative expression" of the ideas, not the ideas themselves. I see it was Zoe who removed your work... She can be a bit overreactive at times. Of course, I hasten to add, Wikipedia would fall apart without her :) -- Tim Starling 12:00 Apr 24, 2003 (UTC)

Yeah, I think Zoe was a bit overly paranoid here. I restored it. LDC

Fine. I still think it's a problem, but I'm not going to the mattresses on it. -- Zoe