Monday, October 03, 2005
COPYRIGHT: If one website copies and posts a story from another, is copyright violated?
Has the journalism-issues blog violated the copyright of Wired News by
reposting the 1998 story, below, without permission? Why or why not? What
are the economic issues? Free-speech issues?
Wired News Report --> Web Site Sued over Copyright
Wired News Report
5:10 p.m. October 1, 1998
In what could be a groundbreaking case for the Internet, the Los
Angeles Times and The Washington Post have filed a
copyright-infringement lawsuit against a Web site that the papers say
has repeatedly republished stories from both papers without
permission.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in a Los Angeles federal court, accuses the
Free Republic site of posting hundreds of stories from both papers,
causing them considerable loss in revenues and readers.
A lawyer representing the newspapers said that regardless of repeated
warnings, the site, which is operated out of Fresno, California, has
been posting stories for a long time. The site is a collection point
for numerous political commentaries and reports culled from around the
Web and a host to chat forums on the hot political topics of the day.
Site operator Jim Robinson said he has done nothing wrong and that the
practice of republishing material on the Web is protected by the First
Amendment and the "fair use" provision of copyright law.
Under the fair use term, sections of copyrighted works are allowed to
be duplicated if they are within the context of commentary -- such as
including excerpted material in a book review.
The suit is expected to be closely monitored by the online community
as a potential groundbreaking attempt to address online copyright
protection.
Robinson said he believes he has been specifically targeted because of
the right-wing commentary on his site, and says he will fight the
lawsuit every step of the way.
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This article above is copyrighted material, the use of which may not have specifically authorized by the copyright owner. The material is made available in an effort to advance understanding of political, economic, democracy, First Amendment, technology, journalism, community and justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' as provided by Section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Chapter 1, Section 107, the material above is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this blog for purposes beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
