Planning on making a collection of all Zen texts floating on the net in dozens of Zen related webpages; many of these texts dont have a copyright notice like for eg. http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/zen/mindins.htm (Mind Inscription); would it be legal to just copy that text and display it on my webpage?
Answers (4)
Most likely no one will call you on it, however, it's important to cite your sources just in case you make it big or you need to remember where you got the information from.
Citing sources is easy and all you need is a website like this:
You can just put the info on an inconspicuous spot on your webpage.
It is definitely copyright infringement but it is true that it is unlikely there will be a problem beyond asking you to take it down. Giving credit to the source does NOT allow you to use copyright protected material without permission. Copyright notice does not effect whether or not something still has copyright protection but EVERYTHING copied from another source has or had at one time copyright protection regardless if the copyright was registered or not.