There are certainly exceptions to every rule; Fly Anglers OnLine (FAOL) is free.
You are welcome to share information you find here, to print out fly patterns, the instructions from various Fly Tying series and have them for your own use ? or for your club?s newsletter (provided you give us proper credit) and you may also use them for a fly tying or rod building class. However;
Right on the money as always De. I took a course on building a website a few years ago and quickly learned that building and or maintaining a site is not what I want to do. There is a good reason that these things cost (well earned) money.
Well said, though I’m wondering: Will it ever be possible to download FAOL to our ereaders?
Randy
Ladyfisher… I feel your pain. 
I think anyone who has written for any amount of time has seen one of their articles, plainly or thinly, disguised show up in another publication. I have one that was originally published in 2000 that shows up every couple years in my “inbox”. The “author” is long since gone - the “origin” is changed regularly but at least I have never seen anyone “taking credit” for writing it. Like Rodney - I get no respect. Even my dad sent it to me once. 
I will say in 30 years of writing it is easily my most “read” work.
I had no idea anyone here would do that. It boggles the mind.
I am a full-time free-lance writer myself, and I know how bad that feels. Often times, I am forced to ghost write for people to pay bills. They get the credit for the article, or book, as well as the copyright, but at least I get payed for the privilege.
I have to confess, I used to copy the fly of the week patterns to my computer, and on a disc, but that was only for my own use. I actually just wanted to preserve them in case the website disappeared (like they often do). But since no one has posted a pattern to the archive since 2009, I guess they are gone. I should’ve kept up better. I still have all of them up to 2009. That way, if I ever lose my internet, I can still tie the patterns.
FAOL is my home in the cloud. Y’all do a great job.
Semper Fi.
Gigmaster, the flies are not gone S Ron Tidd has not kept up the original archives true, but they can be found. Click on the current Fly of the Week, scroll down to the bottom you will find a link to this: http://www.flyanglersonline.com/fotw/index.php
AND Steven Mcgarthwaite has everything on disk if you would like a copy from him.
Hugs,
LF
this will probably be a dumb question but here goes:
when someone writes an article, it is their intellectual property and therefore it is their copyright. when it is submitted for consideration to a forum or bulletin board and published, who’s property is it now? the original author or the forum/bulletin board??
if it becomes the property of the forum/bulletin board, can it be modified into something not intended by or without permission of the original author?
who needs to give the permission to copy or print the original authors material??
i’m curious and would like to know
Ok, fair question. Say you send us an article to be used on FAOL…you thought it up and wrote it, and you can put a copyright on it when you send it in. We print it and technically everything on FAOL is covered by our copyright but unless we have a separate agreement with you, you still own the material you sent us. Some writers request their copyright appear on their articles, others don’t. If some club, not for profit contacts us and asks to reprint your article in their newsletter I will give them your contact information and tell them to contact the author. If the article they want to use is mine or Trav’s I will allow them to use it with the agreement they will include a ‘credit’ on the article which says it came from FAOL and was used with permission. You can change any article, photo, artwork by a minimum of 50% and use it as you wish without legal recourse. That can be messy but it is done. Hope that answers your question.
I see you had originally posted that article in 2005? I had not seen it before, and really enjoyed it. THANK YOU for reposting it! 
I recommend FAOL whenever I can (who wouldn’t?)…it IS my favorite website!
ABSOLUTELY! Without FAOL I’d never have made it fly fishing, and it’s definitely my favorite website and anyone who shows even the smallest interest in fly fishing gets a reccommendation from me to come here. And it really ticks me off that someone would abuse it.
I have many articles that I have written for FAOL, over the past 13 years, I take the word “free lance writer” to mean that I write for free and that any reenumeration’s is a bonus" A past FAOL article I wrote, is now being used as part of a fly fishing and rod building course for new fly anglers in Texas. I someone writes a book that is published, and I read a copy of that book, that I found at the Public Library, do I owe the writer money for reading his book?
I supply free CD’s of “FAOL Fly Patterns” to members of FAOL for their own personnel use. PDF format using the free “Adobe Reader” download for viewing. All articles have a footnote that reads http://www.flyanglersonline.com
All articles have the author of the articles name. I do this so if FAOL does finally disappear (only take a switch to be turned off) that there will be thousands of CD with some, if not all of what has made FAOL the most popular weekly fly fishing magazine on the World Wide Web.
I started doing these CD’s to help raise funds for the “Al Campbell Memorial Bench” which the free will offerings for the CD’s added over $400 to the fund. Those who live outside the USA, I payed for the cost of the CD’s and postage out of my own pocket. For those inside the USA, I deducted the cost of the CD, Label, CD Sleeve, Mailing Envelope, and Postage. Since then I have been offering these CD at no cost to anyone.
This is how I am helping to “Pay Forward” for all the help, learning and friendship that I have found on FAOL!
FAOL has never charged anyone a fee for any article on FAOL, that they have read! By my understandings of these same FAOL Rules are still in place,since I joined FAOL in October 1997 ~Parnelli
I have several of Parnelli’s CD’s of the Fly Of The Week and cherish them. I am so thankful to have them and so thankful to be a member of FAOL. Great place/family and great people as members. Nothing out there compares to what we have here on FAOL.