POSTING ARTICLES

[towhey]

Hi Mike,

Just an observation...

A number of the threads are growing very long with postings that are complete copies of news articles.

While it‘s nice to read them here, for those who don‘t read newspapers, you may want to consider two issues:

First, it adds bulk to the board and that may dissuade some from reading long threads... and may even pose a bandwidth/memory issue.

Second, it‘s illegal -- violates the copyright of the newspaper or the writer if it‘s a freelance piece. Could prompt a complaint from someone in future.

 

[Mike Bobbitt]

towhey,

Good points. Luckily, we‘re doing pretty good for disk space and bandwidth, so I don‘t mind in that regard.

If a piece is correctly credited, is it still a copyright violation? (I really don‘t know!)

I‘ve heard both positive and negative feedback about posting full articles on this site. On the one hand, it allows us to view articles from sources we might not otherwise be aware of. But, it can "bog down" a thread.

Personally, I think that so long as it‘s appropriate to the discussion (and doesn‘t violate copyright laws) then feel free to post it.

Anyone else have an opinion?

Cheers

 

[towhey]

Hi Mike,

I don‘t want to be the "voice of doom" -- however, I was just recently faced with a very similar (read identical) problem affecting a client.

Technically, even if it is properly credited, it is a violation of copyright to use the material in full without permission of the copyright holder.

It is normally considered "fair use" to quote briefly from a piece as long as it is brief, does not form the bulk of the "re-use" and is fully credited to the copyright owner.

I don‘t know whether it will ever become an issue here... but it is a subject that is rapidly coming to a head in the journalism industry.

My guess is that you will be particularly vulnerable regarding pieces written by freelance journalists who were paid by the newspaper only for "one time use" -- many are battling already with the newspapers over their material appearing on the web editions saying that this is a "second use" of their material without payment.

Just a word to the wise.

Posting URL‘s to the articles is awkward, but it does avoid the copyright issue.

Since this is a non-commercial site, you may be able to "ask forgiveness" if it comes up. But...

your call *s*

 

[Infanteer]

For the sake of simplicity, we can just post the link to the article with our commentary underneath it.

 

[Mike Bobbitt]

Thanks for the advice, I was unaware of the implications of a "total post." Now that I‘ve been brought up to speed, I have to agree with Infanteer.

Excepting small or partial quotes, we should link to the article, instead of posting the entire contents here.

Unfortunately, this may mean articles are no longer available to us as the pages disappear, but there‘s not much we can do about that...

Thanks all.