screen grabs of a forum = fair use?

forgotmyname

Right section or should this be in the vent or consumer rights?

No its not this forum but another one that I use.

They have an item on review, its fairly new and has a few short comings, which have been commented on but posts are removed.
I assume the website is making money from mentioning the item and giving a glowing review.

Now there is something fishy going on with the other forum, I reported some threads for spam and made a comment.

My comment got removed but the spam remained. Thought that was odd. So i reported the spam again and reposted without the spam comment and again it got removed, because i criticised the item

Several other posts criticising it have been removed also.

Several users with just 1 post saying what a great item it is and posts saying everyone should have one.

What is annoying is that they just removed my posts with no reason why, no email to say it was removed etc. All very underhand.

Thinking of creating a website with the screen grabs of the posts made then another with the posts left after their sneaky editing has taken place.

Is this acceptable as fair use? Should i blur the members usernames who made the posts or anything?

Been a while since i created a website to complain and it actually made it above/below? theirs in the google search.

Thanks.

PS. I posted to ask them why my post had been removed and they restricted my posting so that it needs to be verified before they allow it to go live.
I hope they have a large jug of coffee because i have created approx 75 posts, all useful and made extra special care to ensure there is no reason not to post them.

Should keep them busy for a few hours.

custardy

forgotmyname wrote: »

Right section or should this be in the vent or consumer rights?

No its not this forum but another one that I use.

They have an item on review, its fairly new and has a few short comings, which have been commented on but posts are removed.
I assume the website is making money from mentioning the item and giving a glowing review.

Now there is something fishy going on with the other forum, I reported some threads for spam and made a comment.

My comment got removed but the spam remained. Thought that was odd. So i reported the spam again and reposted without the spam comment and again it got removed, because i criticised the item

Several other posts criticising it have been removed also.

Several users with just 1 post saying what a great item it is and posts saying everyone should have one.

What is annoying is that they just removed my posts with no reason why, no email to say it was removed etc. All very underhand.

Thinking of creating a website with the screen grabs of the posts made then another with the posts left after their sneaky editing has taken place.

Is this acceptable as fair use? Should i blur the members usernames who made the posts or anything?

Been a while since i created a website to complain and it actually made it above/below? theirs in the google search.

Thanks.

PS. I posted to ask them why my post had been removed and they restricted my posting so that it needs to be verified before they allow it to go live.
I hope they have a large jug of coffee because i have created approx 75 posts, all useful and made extra special care to ensure there is no reason not to post them.

Should keep them busy for a few hours.

Except its far easier to simply not bother taking them off the moderation queue.

Generali

In answer to your question, yes that sounds like fair use to me: you're not trying to pass off the work as your own, merely direct attention to something already in the public domain. I wouldn't worry about disguising usernames unless this is a forum you can only get to by invitation and login.

It soundd like you're a couple of days from being PPRed.

RumRat

What website is it?

kwikbreaks

forgotmyname wrote: »

Should keep them busy for a few hours.

They'll just delete the lot.

If a forum, its users, or its moderators annoy me sufficiently I just move on elsewhere. I've vowed if this one ever deletes another reference I make to the usefulness of contacting a business CEO office via the CEO email I'll move on. The most obvious website for finding the info is blocked by the profanity filter here. See - http://www.!!!!!!!!!!!!!/

forgotmyname

If they delete all my posts then a lot of people will be going without help and advice.

I have a lot of knowledge in several areas and belong to quite a few forums. If someone is local and needs help i will offer to help them with no charge.

I wont mention the forum just yet. They are still having to check all my posts before allowing them to go live.
I do hope the backhanders for the product in question covers their time and effort.

All because i pointed out a couple of posts looked like spam, and asked why they removed my posts asking if certain members only posted to rave about the product.

I have found a small blog where a few people have had the same happen to them.
Only a couple of posts with quite a time between posts.


A clip from the blog i found about the site in question.

any detrimental comments about products all seem to be removed or changed to give a positive light on everything to ensure they get their 'cut' - This results in what seems to be shining but unfortunately bigotted reviews for the products.

bsod

perhaps you're spending too much time on forums, some spam on someone else's forum is not worth a heart attack

custardy

forgotmyname wrote: »

If they delete all my posts then a lot of people will be going without help and advice.

I have a lot of knowledge in several areas and belong to quite a few forums. If someone is local and needs help i will offer to help them with no charge.

I wont mention the forum just yet. They are still having to check all my posts before allowing them to go live.
I do hope the backhanders for the product in question covers their time and effort.

All because i pointed out a couple of posts looked like spam, and asked why they removed my posts asking if certain members only posted to rave about the product.

I have found a small blog where a few people have had the same happen to them.
Only a couple of posts with quite a time between posts.


A clip from the blog i found about the site in question.

So its UKCS then.......

libra10

If the forum uses social media (Facebook or Twitter), it might be keeping posting and raising the issue.

J_B

I'm a 'member' of the Cyprus Living forum

Someone set up a 'rival' forum because they were fed up with the moderator deleting/editing/adding comments to posts

Just bad form IMHO, but it's his baby .....

onomatopoeia99

forgotmyname wrote: »

Thinking of creating a website with the screen grabs of the posts made then another with the posts left after their sneaky editing has taken place.

Is this acceptable as fair use? Should i blur the members usernames who made the posts or anything?

Are you American? In UK law and other common law juristictions there is the concept of fair dealing in copyright law. US law talks about fair use.

If you are indeed in the UK, you should read section 30 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and see if you think it means screen captures of a website count as fair dealing for the puropse of "criticism, review and news reporting". Ultimately it would be for a court to decide, but my non-professional opinion is they don't. s29 and s31 definitely do not apply.

It's one of those situations where the burden of proof is backward - if you are sued for copyright infringement, once the claimant has established to the evidential threshold required (civil court, so balance of probabilities) that copyright has been breached, you then have to prove to the same threshold that your use is fair dealing as provided under the act.

Get reading!