RHF Compilation Copyright

How can I claim this on jokes I didn't write? I'm not. What I'm claiming above is an "editor's" or "collection" copyright. What I'm claiming copyright in is the work done to select, edit, collect, correct, typeset and publish this work. This is the same sort of copyright that publishers of dictionaries claim -- they don't own the individual words, but they do own the collection.

I am claiming no copyright on most of the individual jokes found here. Most of them are, to the best of my knowledge, in the public domain. (It is possible that some of the jokes in here that have no attribution are actually copyrighted. This is the responsibility of each individual submitter. All submitters were asked to attribute their jokes, if at all possible. If any unfair misuse of copyright is present in this archive, it was not wilful. Contact funny-request@netfunny.com and we'll remove it.)

Others are attributed to comedians or other writers. In this case, all are excerpts from larger works, and reproduced under the news reporting and "fair use" clauses of copyright law. The original authors retain all rights in these jokes.

Some jokes are marked with the keyword original, or are otherwise copyrighted. Rights in these reside with the attributed author, and explicit or implicit permission for distribution to computer network readers has been given.

All this is well and good, but what does a collection copyright mean? It means that you can use the public domain jokes on this site, in small quantities, for your own purposes.

What you can't do is copy all the jokes, or use this site as a as a source for another collection. You can't take all, or even a substantial part of the jokes in this archive, and use them as your own, even if you type them in yourself, unless you have explicit permission from me.

By the way, for more information on common mistakes people have about copyright, read my article on copyright myths.

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