Proper Etiquette/Legal Question

Is it legal to copy and paste a news article to you own blog?

IANAL bur here goes: That depends entirely on the source. Some web sites and news organizations limit what you can reproduce. For example see item 7 here.

I’ve done it a few times as I’ve seen many other people do, word for word

Don’t. It’s one thing to write about something you’ve read as a reference. It’s another thing to copy someone else’s work verbatim which is just a type of theft. Make your own work, you’ll be better off for it.

Is that appropriate?

I don’t think it is. When you do it too much you become a splogger and your website is worthless.

I’m curious why you would even do it. If the content is useful for your audience, how about just doing a simple write-up about it and providing a link to the article.

As a even better service, use some nice anchor text to describe the article instead of “click here”, which is essentially worthless for SEO purposes.

My site deals with my personal experiences in my ten years on the railroad and some reporting on the company.

In the sidebars, in widgets, I have one titled ‘deaths this year’ and another titled “company in the news.”

I am doing the writing on the site as far as my own personal experiences, whether good or bad, but the news that I have copied is in the sidebar. For example, the two union websites that govern conductors and engineers do similar reporting except they do it for all the major railroads in the country.

On both union websites, they take an article and copy it word for word and then give a link that tells where the article orginated. That’s why I thought it was kind of commonplace if just telling of a news story, but the reason I did it like that was because I do not want visitors to leave the site when clicking those links.

However, I guess it’s possible to just put links instead of posts in the sidebars and then set them to open up in a seperate browser window.

Two stories that I copied, one was from the associated press, but had been copied word for word on Bloomberg business, which told of the first quarter and second quarter amount of money spend on lobbying the federal goverment. But the link that Jan above give me to the Associated Press said that nothing could be reposted.

There was a death of an employee (one of them) that I was getting information on from Chicago for example, and every site that I visited to get some information was all the exact same article, just reposted. So I just figured it was commonplace, but I do not want to do it if it’s illegal, cause my site is based on what I write. The sidebar stories are just for emphasis and other issues.

On both union websites, they take an article and copy it word for word and then give a link that tells where the article orginated. That’s why I thought it was kind of commonplace if just telling of a news story, but the reason I did it like that was because I do not want visitors to leave the site when clicking those links.

It’s perfectly fine to quote part of an article (a few sentences) and then link to the source, but copying the entire thing verbatim is still content theft no matter who does it or how they cite it, unless the copier is the author of the copied content.

Two stories that I copied, one was from the associated press, but had been copied word for word on Bloomberg business, which told of the first quarter and second quarter amount of money spend on lobbying the federal goverment. But the link that Jan above give me to the Associated Press said that nothing could be reposted.

Bloomberg and several other news networks pay to license the content from the Associated Press, which makes it legal for them to copy AP articles verbatim.

Thanks for the advice. I reworked all of my sidebar content to show links directly to the article to open up in a serparate browser window or tab.

I also read up more on the AP site and sent them an e-mail about a couple of questions. I’ve always heard of the Associated Press, but really had no idea what it was or how it worked. I’m very glad that I checked into this.

I guess my last question would be about links in wordpress. Suppose that business week or someone else has used the AP content legally, and I link to one of those articles directly, is that OK?

I read an article that the AP was cracking down on copyright violations and that they were even a little unhappy about people linking to secondary posters that have posted their content legally. I mean where does the line get drawn cause if linking was a violation, we would be up the creek.

Suppose that business week or someone else has used the AP content legally, and I link to one of those articles directly, is that OK?

That’s okay. In this case, Business Week has licensed the content and therefore owns the right to display it on their site. You’re simply linking to their site, which is perfectly legal.

I read an article that the AP was cracking down on copyright violations and that they were even a little unhappy about people linking to secondary posters that have posted their content legally.

They’re unhappy because they lose out on ad revenue, but there’s really nothing that they can do it about since they’ve licensed the content. Personally, they should just be happy with their licensing revenue.

And is it legal if I paste a text, with the credentials below, or citing the source?

Thanks

And is it legal if I paste a text, with the credentials below, or citing the source?

That’s up to the lawyers to decide. If you quote and cite a few sentences, you may be fine, or they could decide to sue you for copying and republishing a portion of their content (cited or not).