Marijuana.com

Noobtastic

I was reading a few of these earlier today and I realized that no matter how each of them was written, they could really provoke anger in someone (at least they did in my case). I had an idea in which I could print a bunch of these to distribute in the local mall and maybe add a few facts about the truth surrounding marijuana underneath the stories. Will there be any legal issues surrounding this?

 

JohnBoySmoker

Yes. Any information that is printed in High Times becomes the property of High Times. You can't reprint anything from that magazine without their approval.
Now I'm not a lawyer but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express once.

Noobtastic

Including letters only posted on their website?

shibshib

If I type up an original work (be it a book, review, poem, note, etc.) it is instantly copyrighted. I own it. It is my intellectual property.

If I then make a copy of that original work and give it to a friend... my friend now has permission to have a copy of my work because I gave it to him.

If I copy that original work and post it to a website... just as with my friend, I am giving the website permission to use it. Not only from my point of view... but the website is almost guaranteed to have a clause in their TOS that (be it blatant or not) tells you they have a right to use whatever you post/submit to their company/site.

So now, let's say you happen to be standing behind my friend, whom is currently reading my original work. You guys are in a bus or something, and you spend a good time reading my work. You can not now go home and retype my work or reuse it, because you do not have my permission to do so. Yes, you were free to read my work because it was publicly available (within view in the public)... but that does not give you distribution rights.

The same goes with the website. If you happen to stroll across my work on a website... you have every right to read it because it is publicly available... however you do not have any right to redistribute my work just because it is available to you to read.

Without my permission... you could post information leading to a place that does have the right to distribute my paper... for example of the friend, you could tell someone "Hey, at 2pm there will be a guy reading a piece of paper. go stand behind him and read it." And with the website, you can very will post urls leading to the website that has rights to show my work.

But without my permission, or the permission of a person with distribution rights to my work, you may not copy and distribute the work yourself.



Long story short... legally you would not be able to do it. But that is only "legal" in terms of absolutes and "be safes".

In reality, when it comes to copyright, there is a whole can of worms called "Fair Use" which would turn everything I have said upside down and make it completely ok to "fairly use" these works.

"Fair Use" really only comes into play as long as what you are doing is non-commercial, and there might even be a limitation to how many words you may use freely. Also, depending on where you post the works, how they were funded, etc. etc.


So, as layman, in realistic terms: You, an average person, probably have nothing to fear posting some stuff up and around your community. You may not be violating any laws, and even if you were, it'd cost more to go after you than it would to let you do your thing. At worst, you'd get a cease and desist I'd wager.

If I were a lawyer: Don't do it. Atleast contact High Times first and ask permission. I would bet they'd be happy to let you as long as you gave them a credit or something.



LOL

goot

Copying and distributing anything without permission I think, would be against the law. You are thinking in the correct direction. People need to know FACTS. BUT...facts require statistics. I suggest contacting the magazine, tell them your intent and see if they can give you actual raw data for the claim in ANY study.

Numbers don't lie. They can however be manipulated by people who do. People need facts. Period! Without raw data, nobody wants to even try and think about marijuana. Well, at least the people that are ignorant to the herb and also maybe people that teach statistcs and want to know the facts and the truth through the data.

I'm sure High Times wouldn't mind backing up their claims with RAW data if they have it. If you have their permission to freely distribute cold hard numerical facts that can be backed up and accessable to the population, then I'm sure they would love for you to deliver something like that which has their name on it.

That does three things: 1) It gives people cold hard facts. 2) It will give High Times part of the credit in pushing those facts on the American and statistically ignorant public, and 3) It will EMBARASS the government because they HIDE and prohibit their data about marijuana and medicines to reach the public.

Isn't it Kentucky State University that grows marijuana for government research? Also, one of the Northeastern major universities recently applied for the license to grow pot. The People of the united states of america need to stand up and with the govn't.

Hope that helps.

Remember to RANDOMLY scatter your seeds across the nation.

 

Buzzby

I really don't think High Times would have any problem with your reprinting their material for the purpose of promoting the legalization of marijuana. The people who own the mall would definitely have a problem with you distributing that kind of material on their private property. You would probably have to do it on public property.

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Merry-juana

Ask them, ask if they have some numiricals, make a nice design (or PM me the letters and I would make a nice one for you, and even distribute it here in south africa, make it a global thing, the more people around the world who agrees that it should be legal the bigger the pressure.), print the flyers, and distribute it as best you can, give it to people at the mall untill security kicks you out, then go to the next mall, untill you run out of malls then go to public property, like parks or beaches.
Also, buy the squagiest squag you can find, take the seeds and plant it everywhere, tell your friends to do it, let everyone do it, untill there are more marijuana plants than people. Join protests whenever there are ones, or organize your own protest. If you are really daring: Make notes that give the facts about marijuana, roll a really, really thin joint (REALLY THIN), put it in the message, and put it in peoples mailboxes, do this with all the weed you can spare. Just be sure to wear gloves when doing it so that there aren't any fingerprints.

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goot

Buzzby and shibshib do have a good points. I didn't even think of things like malls not wanting to promote an issue like this. I don't suggest handing out flyers until you get kicked out because this sends a bad messege when people hear about or see you get kicked out for handing out info on pot. Especially if you fit the "look" of the portrayed pot smoker.

I suggest approaching businesses from an educational point of view. Don't go to them smelling like a pot smoker and expect them to send you back out smelling like a rose, you know what I'm saying?

Noobtastic

I'll look into a public place to hand them out in, Tallahassee has a cyclists critical mass in about a week which is primarily made up of college students so I can give some to them or even have a few to distribute some flyers themselves.

troublemaker_42

The number of various laws you advocate breaking here is startling. it sounds like a great plan....if you're fond of 6x8 cells and really shitty food.

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