I am curious on how others feel about this. I have recently encountered a couple of campgrounds that have visited this site, copied and pasted only the positive parts of reviews into their own web site as reasons to stay in their parks. I fully understand the need to show your park in a positive aspect. However I also think removing parts of a review and then “quoting” that review is very misleading. I believe, all of us who take the time to type a full review, does so so that others know what to expect at a park. However one of the parks I have encountered this at, shows the review coming from this site, they just omitted the “negative” aspects of the reviews. I understand this a is public domain web site, I do not appreciate having my words twisted and turned into something they are not. If I give a resort a positive review, it is because they have earned it... If I have posted something “negative” I have done so to warn other travelers to potential problems with said park. To have these warnings removed because it does not suit the owner's and then have my review misquoted, really bothers me. In my opinion these parks will do whatever is necessary to make sure only good reviews show up on their page here. I firmly that is the case with at least one park I have encountered. How do you feel about having your review misquoted by a park ? ? ? ?
That's kind of a tough call to make. Under current copywrite "fair use" laws, they can use a brief excerpt from a copywritten piece, but cannot use the piece in its entirety without permission. I do fully understand your position, and even agree that it bothers me as well to see it done without at least a link to the full review here. I don't know that there's any recourse though, except to let the offending parks know what you think of their deception.
You can read a copy of our “Internet Disclaimer and Terms" by clicking on that wording found at the bottom of our webpages. I am aware that, as Dutch said, there is a copyright "fair use" doctrine that allows for the use of small portions of a copyrighted work, but I thought that applied only to educational use, not publication on a commercial, for profit website (or anything else that is for profit.) As for what can be done: I am not a lawyer, but I imagine that first it has to be established if the use of the portion of the review is in fact a copyright violation. (It is possible that our webmaster gave his permission to use it, but I doubt it.) Then I suppose WM must take some sort of legal action to get the park owner to remove the review. So the bottom line is it is up to our WM whether or not something will be done, but I do appreciate your calling it to our attention.
QUOTE(Texasrvers @ Jul 30 2013, 06:32 PM) [snapback]34296[/snapback] You can read a copy of our “Internet Disclaimer and Terms" by clicking on that wording found at the bottom of our webpages. I am aware that, as Dutch said, there is a copyright "fair use" doctrine that allows for the use of small portions of a copyrighted work, but I thought that applied only to educational use, not publication on a commercial, for profit website (or anything else that is for profit.) As for what can be done: I am not a lawyer, but I imagine that first it has to be established if the use of the portion of the review is in fact a copyright violation. (It is possible that our webmaster gave his permission to use it, but I doubt it.) Then I suppose WM must take some sort of legal action to get the park owner to remove the review. So the bottom line is it is up to our WM whether or not something will be done, but I do appreciate your calling it to our attention. Thank You for bringing this to the WM attention.... The only reason I noticed the use of reviews was because I was reading reviews on the site here, and my hubby was reading reviews on the CG's web site.. When they started to sound familiar, we started sifting through the reviews and noticed that a number of them were copied and pasted.... None of them showed where the reviews came from... On the CG's web site, they say "happy camper".... Thank you again....
Would you care to name the campground? If you want to keep it out of the forum, you can send it to me in a personal message through our system. Click on my username and you will get a screen that allows you to send a personal message to me. Or not. It is your choice.
