Interpreting Fair Use In The Blogosphere
There is some confusion with regard to plagiarism and what constitutes fair use online. Some people are so afraid to violate copyright laws that they miss great opportunities to see their work expanded.
The blogosphere has its own rules, but those rules don’t discount traditional law. Stealing is still stealing, even on the Internet. But allow me to dispel some copyright infringement myths:
- It isn’t stealing if you attribute the source
- Copyright infringement does not entail using another person’s work if you add content of your own that creates new value
- Fair use entails adding enough content of your own to sufficiently prevent your content from consisting primarily, or only, of another individual’s content
If these guidelines seem a bit vague, it’s because they are. When it comes to fair use and copyright infringement, there are a lot of gray areas. However, there is still enough black and white to draw some lines in the sand.
I’m not an attorney, but these guidelines work for all forms of content online - blogs, articles, website content, etc. Christopher Alan Jennings of the American Law Division wrote a report for Congress titled “Fair Use on the Internet” (this is a .pdf document so it may load slowly) and he said that courts weigh four factors with regard to fair use, whether online or off line:
- Purpose and character of work in question
- Nature of copyrighted work
- “Amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole”
- Effect of use of the work “upon the potential market”
In the blogosphere, it is considered acceptable to trackback to another individual’s blog or borrow from their blog and add comments of your own. If you engage in this practice, and you should, then do the right thing and link back to your sources. This is the online equivalent of citing references in your print or off line material. Your link back to the original source constitutes proper attribution. Of course, you could go a step further and identify your source by name, but it isn’t necessary.
An example of proper attribution would be the above link to the “Fair Use on the Internet” report. By linking back to the original source, you give your readers a chance to check your facts to see if you got them correct but also to see if you are interpreting them correctly. You let the readers be the judge. This will go a long way toward increasing your credibility.
Before you use material from another website or blog, ask yourself these questions:
- Does this material add value or provide new understanding to my readers?
- Would my own comments regarding this topic benefit without this material?
- Am I willing to link back to this source?
This is not elementary and there is more to each of these questions than simply answering them without contemplation.
If the material you want to copy and paste adds new understanding to your topic and provides value for your readership then go ahead and use it, but be sure to give attribution to your source.
If your own comments will stand alone without the material you want to borrow, ask yourself if it is really necessary to borrow. If not, then leave it alone, or paraphrase it. If there is no way your own material can stand alone without borrowing someone else’s material then maybe you should reconsider your own knowledge of the topic. You want your own material to be able to stand on its own. Consider the other person’s work much like graphics on your web site: It is there to enhance, not to be the primary focus.
Thirdly, if you are not willing to link back to your source then don’t bother using the material. Linking back is essential as an act of attribution and if you are not willing to do this then leave it alone.
Allen Taylor is the operations manager for NameCritic, Inc., which includes Article Content Provider, SEO Service Provider, and Blog Content Provider. He writes the News and Media Blog and survived as a newspaper editor in his off line past. He is not an attorney and never has been.
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