The purpose of this question is (1) a request for information, and (2) depending on #1, a request to update the Rules.
Issue of text:
It is clearly stated in the rules, and understood my most, that no copywritten text is allowed to be copied into the forum database (the posts). Done - no issues.
In the rules, it doesn't make it clear that we are or are not allowed to link to copywritten text that resides on other servers.
Historically, I have linked to, and have seen many links to copywritten texts, and haven't seen any major problems in terms of the mods.
Issue of sound:
Our technology is such that we can now record our own voices or any other sounds we might want to, and it seems that we could reasonably attach them to a post (limited by size of course).
I have linked to outside .wav files (some bird chirps months ago) and they may or may not have been copywritten.
Clearly we should not attach a copywritten .wav file.
The rules don't make any statements about sound files, copywritten or otherwise.
Issue of video:
Analogous to sound, we can now easily video anything we'd like, and upload them attached (size limitations again).
But links to external video may be an issue. In IE, we've been told that we cannot link to any copywritten video.
Clearly, we should not attach any copywritten video.
Recently a few of us have been passing around via PM links to short video clips to help us with accents.
The rules don't make a clear statement in this regard.
My questions (rhetorical if you wish).
1. If there is a distinction between posted text and linked text, should there be a similar distinction with sound and video?
2. Should the rules be updated to speak to the issues of posted sound/video (in the WR database) vs linked sound/video (residing on another server)?
Just some thoughts.