About the Author
Robert G. (Bob) Collazo Jr. very much enjoys writing short stories and poetry in his spare time. He writes short stories about his life experiences, and inspirational poetry about friends, co-workers, and of course, family. He has been writing poetry since back in college in 1971. This coming November 2010, Bob will mark his 32nd year working for the USDA. He is presently working as a supervisory investigator for the U. S. Dept of Agriculture/Food Safety and Inspection Service. He has thoroughly enjoyed working for the Agency, and he has especially relished meeting all his friends along the way. In the fall of 2009, he was the Incident Commander during Hurricane Ike, during which he led teams of USDA Investigators during that storm through hundreds of warehouses, distributorships, school districts, etc. His teams detained and obtained voluntary destruction of approximately three quarters of a million pounds of meat, poultry, and egg products that had lost their integrity due to the power outages. His experiences were creatively recounted when he wrote a poem, “A Storm Called Ike”. This poem was published in the USDA/FSIS official publication, “News and Notes” (November 2008 Edition); as well as in USDA/FSIS’s Office of Management’s “The Beacon” (November 2008 Edition).
He plans on retiring from the USDA on January, 2011, and hopes then to work full time on his writing. He also hopes to publish his poems, and short stories, at that time. He has already started writing a murder mystery concerning a (favorite) government agency, so stayed tuned!
Exclusive Copyright of this Website
Robert retains all exclusive rights to his work. All of his work on this website is copyrighted. Thus, the use or copying of any information in this web site requires prior permission from the author, publisher, and/or web site owner.
“Copying” includes photocopying material, attaching it to an e-mail or distributing it to a listserv, and placing it on one’s own web site. Some recent court cases have held that linking and framing articles are forms of copying that require permission.
Moreover, the Supreme Court held in the case of New York Times Co. v. Tasini that permission by an author (or publisher) is not carte blanche to use the article in any format. Permission to copy or use an article, regardless of its format, is limited to the purposes for which the original permission was given. For example, if you receive permission to use an article for a staff/student workshop, this permission does not authorize you to place the article on your web site; e-mail it to your entire class, organization, or listserv; or place it in any other publication that you produce. Separate permission is needed for those uses.
The “fair use” doctrine permits the reproduction of copyrighted works without permission for certain limited purposes. But there are grave misconceptions regarding fair use, which is a very narrow exception to the copyright protections. Attorneys who investigate copyright violations report being told that “I downloaded this information because I was doing training on this subject for students or employees,” or “My listserv was discussing this topic and I knew that this article would be relevant to the discussion.” Such comments indicate a belief that as long as the individual is not selling information from a web page, it is fair use to distribute it free to others-on paper or electronically-for an educational purpose. However, using an article for educational purposes does not justify or provide a defense for unauthorized copying.
Making copies of such material without permission is a violation of the web sites’ copyright.
The same restrictions on copying or using information from a web site hold true for logos and trademarks. U.S. trademark law permits individuals who sell goods and services to protect any words, phrases, symbols, or designs that identify or distinguish their goods and services from others’ products. No one else can use them to identify similar goods and services. (Photographs also are protected by copyright law.)
Many organizations do not want their names or logos to appear on web sites that are not their own, even if the use is “innocent.” They do not want to give the impression that they are endorsing the other sites. “Borrowing” the logo or a trademark to use as a hyperlink also is restricted unless permission is obtained first. One final note on trademark: An important distinction between copyright and trademark law is that trademark law does not provide a fair use exception.
Many web sites provide information that may not fall within copyright protection, yet it is still the property of the web site owners. Examples of such information include salary data, survey results, benchmarking information, job postings, and the like. Another example worth noting is user information.
These rules prohibit users from distributing information on the sites, via copying, linking, or framing, without the express permission of the site owners. Web sites that have directories of names and addresses typically prohibit the use of these directories as “electronic mailing lists” for purposes of group notification or solicitation of a product, service, or event. Users who do not agree to the terms or fail to adhere to these rules may be barred from this site.
The fact remains that the information on these web sites is the property of the site owner, Robert G. Collazo, Jr. Web site owners want people to use the information on their pages for personal, noncommercial purposes. The owner grants a “license” to users to read and even make a printout of the information.
However, distributing the information to others via e-mail, making multiple printed copies, or placing the information on another web site would amount to the unauthorized use of proprietary information. This does not authorize career center or commercial web sites to post the opening or create a link to it. Even framing could be a problem because it builds a border around the employer’s web page to make it appear as if the information is owned by another site.
Robert may be contacted at <robertgc2@hotmail.com>
