Advice on legalities of quoting news items in a website

101001101

101001101

101001101

Associate
Joined
21 Apr 2011
Posts
446
Hi guys

Happy new year! hope you all had a good xmas.

I was wondering what the legal implications are to quoting news items on your website, for example:

1. Copy / paste the entire article and headline with the original source named and linked at the end of the article. (probably not good)

2. Write a few words yourself on the news item and then link it up "read more" without directly quoting the original article. (is this ok?)

Embedding news article images:

1. Embed same pic but with caption (i.e Credit: AP images .... etc)

2. Cannot use news item images - I believe you require a license to do this (for example Associated Press)

I'm just wondering how you guys do this (those that do) - i.e what is acceptable and what is not, I highly doubt point 1 on both above is; I just wanted to get some opinions.

Thanks
 
If you are unsure seek legal advice. As copyright law is a huge minefield, having said that.

Always check the licensing on the source website. They vary widely. Some sites will license some content for distribution. RSS etc... or have api's that can be used. Within the RSS you have some that will come with images, some will be full articles and some will be excerpts. If it is being syndicated then you can use it aslong as you stick to the license.

Personally I have numerous RSS feeds coming in to my reader which I monitor. Then depending on what it is I will either add commentary and quote the original article then link to it at the end. Or I may just have a quick self written piece and then post the RSS. All of that as far as I know is perfectly legal.

Copy and pasting any content/images could be legal depending on the site and how they license it. But this is rare.

Another tip as there are some dodgy site owners out there, keep some simple records of where the content came from and when you posted it. Just to protect yourself from future issues. Like the content owner changing their license and coming at you for money, yes it does happen. If you can setup somekind of page monitor to watch the license page for changes.

You can "quote" content as far as I know as long as you credit the original article, usually done at the end.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom