Am I allowed to reproduce work published on a website for free which bears an "all rights reserved" tag?

Question

I'm aware of this answer Quoting from a book with "All rights reserved". Fair use? but my case is slightly different, so I will ask another question.

There is a website which contains entire contents of books, published online for free (which I'm guessing they got permission from the author to publish it compeltely online), as part of their webpage. Here's a link to one example page: https://www.chabad.org/dailystudy/tanya.asp?tdate=2/2/2020

the key point is a passage at the bottom of the webpage which states:

Translated from Yiddish by Rabbi Levy Wineberg and Rabbi Sholom B. Wineberg. Edited by Uri Kaploun. Published and copyright by Kehot Publication Society, all rights reserved. The text on this page contains sacred literature. Please do not deface or discard.

There are many more pages like this, both involving this specific book and other books with similar situations / statements.

I wanted to download all of these web pages and republish them as a separate website with slightly different styles etc., but not for commercial purposes.

Would this be allowed under copyright law, since it's already published as a webpage on the web, which anyone can download, or since only this particular website got permission, it wouldn't be allowed?

Answer 1

All rights reserved

When someone says "all rights reserved" on copyright material, what does that mean?

Well, the rights that copyright gives vary slightly by jurisdiction but takingaustralia as pretty representative, they are spelled out in s31 of the Copyright Act 1968:

(1) For the purposes of this Act, unless the contrary intention appears, copyright, in relation to a work, is the exclusive right:

(a) in the case of a literary, dramatic or musical work, to do all or any of the following acts:

(i) to reproduce the work in a material form;

(ii) to publish the work;

(iii) to perform the work in public;

(iv) to communicate the work to the public;

(vi) to make an adaptation of the work;

(vii) to do, in relation to a work that is an adaptation of the first-mentioned work, any of the acts specified in relation to the first-mentioned work in subparagraphs (i) to (iv), inclusive; and

(b) in the case of an artistic work, to do all or any of the following acts:

(i) to reproduce the work in a material form;

(ii) to publish the work;

(iii) to communicate the work to the public; and

(c) in the case of a literary work (other than a computer program) or a musical or dramatic work, to enter into a commercial rental arrangement in respect of the work reproduced in a sound recording; and

(d) in the case of a computer program, to enter into a commercial rental arrangement in respect of the program.

The author has reserved these rights to themselves. This is the default position anyway; there is no need to state "all rights reserved".

What you propose is copyright violation

Specifically, its a breach of (1)(ii) and (i)(iv).

Exceptions

Copyright law gives exemptions where reproduction is not a breach even if the author has not given permission. See What is the practical difference between "fair use" and "fair dealing" in Copyright law?

By the way, your proposed use is definitely not fair dealing and is probably not fair use.