1. Only put up original work. Don't steal, copy or plagiarize. It's just plain wrong (and boring). If you use any portion of someone's work give them credit.

2. Don't put up anything on PNN that you wouldn't want to show your mother, assuming that she's liberal, open-minded and has a sense of humor.

3. Be kind to others. Being rude is just silly.

4. If you put up original material on PNN you still own it, but you give us the right to use it. This doesn't mean that we can sell coffee cups with your graphics on them - it just means that in the normal everyday business of using and promoting the site your work may be used.

5. We have the right to take material down if we think it's wrong, anytime we want.

6. We'll try our best to take down inappropriate material, but you use this site at your own risk. Don't come to us if your computer sparks and disintegrates, or your mind is permanently altered by something you read on PNN.

7. You have to be at least 13, sorry those are the rules. If you're not, you need to be sponsored by someone who is over 13.

8. If you don't agree with this or the longer version below, please do not use this site.

9. If you use this site, we will assume that you agree with these rules, and that you will be legally bound by everything we say below.

10. Don't spam anyone, no one reads them anyway.

11. Be creative and have fun. We are all journalists.

Long Version -So, what's "Fair Use" mean anyway?

Fair use is the idea that if you abide by certain rules it's okay to use someone else's work in your own. Since PNN is all about sharing your work with others, it's an important concept. At the same time, the discussion of exactly what fair use means keeps a whole lot of attorneys working full time.

A lot of people think that if you see something great, a cool video, picture, drawing or whatever, it's okay to copy it and put it up on your web site. Problem is, it's not. It isn't 'fair' because you didn't do anything to make it yours and you didn't get the author's permission. That doesn't mean you can't find the author and get their permission and then put it up, more power to you.

PNN is all about sharing, so authors decide themselves how others may use their work. We have adopted the ideas of the Creative Commons group. You can learn more at (www.creativecommons.org). The basic idea is that you set your own rights to everything from 'please don't use it at all', to 'go right ahead take whatever you want and make me famous!'

In general, it all comes down to: put up original work, don't steal from others, get permission when possible, and be ready and willing to modify your material if you overlook something. Most of all remember that it's a community project here, and besides it's just more fun to be original.

Copyright Law

The rest of this document talks about the particulars of posting work on PNN - what's good, what's not, and how to keep an eye out for improper use. This will make sure that you respect the intellectual property rights of others and help ensure that the work you post will stay there. At the same time, please contact us if you think that your rights are being violated by anyone.

The very best way to avoid any trouble is to get the original author's permission to use their material. In school we are taught that if we just credit the person we can use what you want. Well, that isn't necessarily so, and the best way is simply to get permission first.

A copyright protects original works, things like videos, written articles, audio tracks, drawings or photographs. The copyright protects them whether they are published or not. Things that are generally not copyrighted are ideas and public domain works. Sometimes, but not always, you'll see the copyright symbol, next to a copyrighted work, but you should know that neither the symbol nor the words "copyrighted by" have to be present for the material to be covered. The copyright holder decides how their material may be used.

Okay, so to avoid possibly infringing on someone else's copyright, just get his or her permission. This can be fun anyway; you just might meet people you always wanted to know. There are times when you can use someone else's material without their permission say, for example, you're doing a parody, or making a political statement but be careful, remember that you can only use enough of the original to get the idea across, not the whole work.

All of the above talk about copyright is also true of trademarks. A trademark is the original graphic that identifies a company or a product such as Apple's apple logo, or the check mark from Nike. In general, you can't use someone else's trademark without their permission. But, just like copyrights, the Fair Use Law' says that there are times when it's okay such as for parodies or political statements.

Our Right to Take Things Down

So, you've taken all the precautions and you see someone who is using your work, or the work of another who hasn't received permission. What do you do? Simple, email us. It's the community who will keep all this working properly. We are just too small to watch everything, so we need your help.

When we discover instances of any improper use PNN has the right to take the work down, and we will. If the material is taken down, the author always has the right to protest and try to get it back up. We want to keep things fair.

How about censorship? We don't do it - sort of. You're free to post whatever you want; however, if your site is flagged as inappropriate by others we reserve the right to take the material down. See rule #2 above. Basically nothing pornographic, obscene, crude, or slanderous.

If you really want to dig into this further there are a lot of resources on the web. A few are the Wikipedia's entry on Fair Use, Nolo law center and the the Creative Commons website.

Contact Us

By email: agreement@pnn.com