Tossed from Kinkos for copying clips

[Miles O'Toole]

I was at a FedEx Kinkos yesterday and I got tossed from the store because I was making copies of my clips. The peeps saw me at one of the machines and came up to me with some brochure saying because of copyright laws Kinkos can't make copies of newspapers. There just happen to be another journalist doing the same thing next to me and she got thrown out too. Luckily I had just finished, but the other person threw a fit.

I sure as hell have never heard of this. Has anyone else faced this issue? How the hell are you supposed to make copies of clips?

 

[goalmouth]

Aren't copies permitted for personal use, as long as you don't resell the copyrighted material? Maybe Kinko's was hit with a damage suit and its protecting itself?

Sounds like a good job -- Xerox Nazi at Kinko's.

 

[Jim Tom Pinch]

I've always said the copyright to the work are jointly held both by the paper and the writer. I show the byline and then show my ID and I've never been bothered. I ahve no idea whether what I'm sayng is true, but it makes enough sense to them that they have always left me alone.

 

[bigpern23]

They gave me ship about copyrighted material once when I wanted to have a picture of O.J. Simpson put on a T-Shirt. They eventually let me because I ashured them I wasn't selling it.

 

[HackyMcHack]

I had a similar situation a few years back. Except the two clerks there were simply straight-up a-holes. They were being jerks to everybody. Kinko's is now on my permanent boycott list.

That is why I now have a copier/scanner/printer at home. If I need multiple copies, I just make one copy and go to Staples and do the rest on my own.

Page designs? I've gone the PDF route and/or hoarded copies of my best pages.

 

[Walter_Sobchak]

Staples did the same thing to me on multiple occasions, freaking ashholes.
Made me get a letter from the managing editor saying I had the paper's permission to make copies. Unfortunately, this was a couple years ago, and I didn't have a snappy response like JTP's to make them realize what toolboxes they were being.

Weird thing is, I had also wanted to make color 8x11s of pages I had designed onto posterboard-type paper, so I burned a bunch of PDFs to CD and brought the disc to the store. Apparently it was OK for them to make those copies. Doesn't really make sense.

 

[Miles O'Toole]

I told the Kinkos guy that these were my articles and this is what journalists do when they apply for jobs. I guess I'll be printing out stories from our Web site for now on.

 

[jgmacg]

You're not alone.

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/36465/

 

[21]

We had a good thread on this not too long ago, no idea if it's still here. (edit, looks like jgmac found it.)

Kinko's was the defendant in a major copyright suit, after copying educational material for resale (i think those are the basics). In the wake of that, they allow zero reprinting of any copyright material.

With regard to who holds the copyright to bylined material....it's almost never the writer if it was written for a newspaper or magazine.

 

[bigpern23]

We had a good thread on this not too long ago, no idea if it's still here. (edit, looks like jgmac found it.)

Kinko's was the defendant in a major copyright suit, after copying and reprinting educational material for resale (i think those are the basics). In the wake of that, they allow zero reprinting of any copyright material.

With regard to who holds the copyright to bylined material....it's almost never the writer if it was written for a newspaper or magazine.

True, the writer almost never holds the copyright, but it's unlikely the dillholes at Kinkos would have any grasp of copyright law. You're basically going to get two kinds of people there: The one who figures you know better and says, 'Oh, OK,' or the one who has little power elsewhere in his or her life and will take the opportunity to tell you you can't do it because, 'It's our policy.'

But you'd be amazed what a little bluster can accomplish. If you act like you know what you're talking about to someone who know knows nothing about it, that person will usually go along with what you say.

 

[21]

We had a good thread on this not too long ago, no idea if it's still here. (edit, looks like jgmac found it.)

Kinko's was the defendant in a major copyright suit, after copying and reprinting educational material for resale (i think those are the basics). In the wake of that, they allow zero reprinting of any copyright material.

With regard to who holds the copyright to bylined material....it's almost never the writer if it was written for a newspaper or magazine.

True, the writer almost never holds the copyright, but it's unlikely the dillholes at Kinkos would have any grasp of copyright law. You're basically going to get two kinds of people there: The one who figures you know better and says, 'Oh, OK,' or the one who has little power elsewhere in his or her life and will take the opportunity to tell you you can't do it because, 'It's our policy.'

But you'd be amazed what a little bluster can accomplish. If you act like you know what you're talking about to someone who know knows nothing about it, that person will usually go along with what you say.

I just figure those folks are just doing their jobs....the policy says no copying, so why go there to copy? There are million other places with copy machines.

 

[mike311gd]

I used to just print and make copies at my old job. Worked for me, and they never knew about it.