Copyright And Fair Use Coming Under Attack

The New York Times is now raising an issue if bloggers, even Google, can quote text from an article that is written by their staff. It seems that as the economy sours for newspapers, they are seeking other sources of revenue to supplement their failing news print business. Coming under further attack is Google that aggregates news from all sources and now has added adverting to their news site.

In their recent article The New York Times states that:

When the popular New York business blog Silicon Alley Insider quoted a quarter of Peggy Noonan’s Wall Street Journal column in mid-February, the editor added a caveat at the end: “We thank Dow Jones in advance for allowing us to bring it to you.”

The editor added “in advance” because Dow Jones, the publisher of The Journal, had not given the blog permission to use the column. The excerpt was published with the assumption that it would be permitted under the “fair use” statute of copyright law.

Generally, the excerpts have been considered legal, and for years they have been welcomed by major media companies, which were happy to receive links and pass-along traffic from the swarm of Web sites that regurgitate their news and information.

With the Web’s advertising engine stalling just as newspapers are under pressure, some publishers are second-guessing their liberal attitude toward free content.

So we have two opinions as to what is acceptable and what is not. But what is really happening is that today’s newspapers have a failing business model and they are crying foul because their revenues are shrinking. Or maybe every newspaper in the US should be required to obtain a release from everyone who makes any statement, i.e., when Obama speaks, he should have his speech copyrighted.

What do you think?

Comments welcome.

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