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Say I am a British academic, who happens to have a blog, where I comment on my research and other people's research. Naturally, I do not want to infringe copyrights on any type, including intellectual property (IP). Yet, it seems that the IP law is "more loose" in the US than in the UK. In effect, whereas the US law is defined on positive terms ("this is what you cannot do"), the UK is defined on negative terms ("this is what you can do").

Just for the sake of minimizing potential, unintended infringement of IP copyrights in my blog, should I register my website in the US, or is that irrelevant?

luchonacho
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    I don't think that this is relevant. Probably registering the site is Russia would be better. But I don't see how a science blog can infringe copyrights, unless you copy large parts from manuscripts there(text, figures, ...). – Nikey Mike Feb 23 '17 at 15:00
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    This is probably a better question for Law.SE; this community isn't meant to attract legal experts. But as I understand it, if you are in the UK, you are subject to its laws, regardless of where your website is hosted. (If you host in another country, you might also be subject to that country's laws.) – Nate Eldredge Feb 23 '17 at 15:14
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    "copyrights on any type, including intellectual property (IP)" - normally, "copyright" is used as a specific type of "intellectual property", not the other way round. – O. R. Mapper Feb 23 '17 at 15:16
  • i what way do you fear you'd be infringing a law regarding IP when writing on your blog? – Cape Code Apr 25 '17 at 05:56
  • @CapeCode for example, uploading a journal article which copyright has not expired yet. Or adding pictures without proper references. Not that I intent to do this, but still, I'm curious. – luchonacho Apr 25 '17 at 08:51
  • You might be able to upload a journal article, if you are the author. It is unlikely if you can upload a journal article otherwise. For extracts of journal articles (e.g., passsages of text or images), you just need to reference the original source and you should be okay.

    Mikey Mike is probably right with regards to Russia. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sci-Hub)

     – user2768 Apr 25 '17 at 11:32
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    The link does not support your characterization that 'IP law is "more loose" in the US than in the UK' or that 'the US law is defined on positive terms ..., the UK is defined on negative terms'. There are various other differences between the US and other countries, such as the existence of the DMCA in the US. –  Apr 25 '17 at 19:14

3 Answers3

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I can hardly see how writing your own comments on someone else's published work can come close to any sort of copyright infringement. Obviously, you would not re-publish someone else's papers in your blog? Small quotes are allowed in the UK under fair dealing exception (aka fair use). IANAL, but I would be surprised if it's any different in the US.

Obviously, if you republish someone else's papers in full, this is anything but a blog.

Dmitry Savostyanov
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I think you are talking about 'hosting'. [Please take what I said with a pinch of salt and this does not constitute legal advice] Where the site is hosted does matter because the laws at where the site is hosted (Godaddy, bluehost etc) is subjected to that jurisdiction. But ultimately, if you're talking about 'copyright or IP' issues, it is the country which you are operating out of that matters rather than where the site is hosted so if you're based in the UK, it would be UK laws that is material.

MHL
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If by "register the website" you're talking about paying for a domain name, it doesn't matter whom you register the website with. The convenient way to do it is to register the domain name through the webhosting provider.

Rules of thumb:

Don't plagiarize, i.e. don't quote other people's work without citing them; don't steal someone else's work and pretend it is your own.

Don't re-publish substantial portions of other people's work without permission.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. For example, if you talk about J Smith's work, link to J Smith's home page.

aparente001
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