Copyright in a twist

The Associated Press to Set Guidelines for Using Its Articles in Blogs

By SAUL HANSELL

Published: June 16, 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/16/business/media/16ap.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&ref=technology&adxnnlx=1213733049-h0j5lIssSOnRuQ0eVvudSw

Copyright 2008
The New York Times Company

The New York Times yesterday, 16th April 2008, published an article on A.P.'s policy on copyright and the use of there copyrighted material by bloggers. Links to the story above.

For example AP "objected to 7 items" used by a blogger, "that contained quotations from A.P. articles ranging from 39 to 79 words."

Etc etc.

My Comments

Of course, we must all respect the copyright of others. That is not an issue, nor should we give up the right of "fair use" even though such a concept might mean different things to different people. And that does not including the interpretation by other legal jurisdictions.

Apparently, one of the arguments used by A.P. was that bloggers should use short summaries and provide a link to the relevant story.

The issue is: what is "fair use" or short comment if we want to make sure that we do not misrepresent a material fact reported in the copyright material we wish to use?

For example, would I be misrepresenting the NYT article or a material fact if, instead of quoting that fragment from the article, I wrote:

  • ... from A.P. of an average 59 words.....
  • ... ranging from 40 to 80 words....
  • ...just under ten articles.........of 39 words and more....

You get the point.

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