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Web copyright dispute settled

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 29 Aug 2005

A company accused of online copyright infringement has paid an out-of-court cash settlement to the copyright owner, financial advisor directory www.FindanAdvisor.co.za.

MediaWeb reports that the alleged wrongdoer purportedly copied, word for word, a large piece of text from FindanAdvisor`s Web site and distributed such as part of an e-mail newsletter for its own marketing campaign.

Copying and pasting content off the Internet is widespread, but offenders can be sued for up to three or four years of royalty fees, or even more if financial loss can be proved, says FindanAdvisor in a statement.

It notes that parties making use of content from Web sites need to quote the source of the content and preferably provide a link back to the source Web site. Most Web authors will be content with the publicity and incoming link; however, in order to be completely watertight, express authorisation by the author of the content needs to be obtained, the company says.

FindanAdvisor.co.za says it is "pleased" with the settlement.

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