News Linking and Copyright

Recently there has been significant debate regarding whether news stories are protected by copyright law.  The Associated Press has taken action to prevent bloggers and other news site from using their stories.  Specifically they have taken legal action against All Headlines News for using AP stories without their permission and they have implemented a new system to track digital articles.   In addition, a federal judge proposed a ban on websites accessing or linking or paraphasing a news article without the site’s consent.  In light of these recent events, below is an analysis on whether it is possible to copyright a news story?  Also I will provide practical tips on how to properly reference or quote copyright material.

It is a general rule that factual information or news stories are not copyrightable.  The copyright law protects original creations of the mind.  This definition means that any idea or thought that creates an original work of authorship is considered copyrighted material.  Stories that report facts and information are not “original works of authorship” or “creations of the mind.”  As a result, the copyright laws have never extended to news stories. Specifically, the Copyright statutues states in Section 107,under the Fair Use Doctrine, “the reproduction of a particular work may be considered fair, when reproducing a criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.”  So when a blogger or website, paraphrases, quotes or links back to a news story, without obtaining the permission of the news source, it is permissible under the current law.

How to properly quote copyrighted material

The law is significantly more strict when it comes to copyrighted material.   A blogger or website can directly quote, paraphrase or link back to copyrighted material if:

1.  The blogger or site first obtains the permission of the copyright owner before posting the copyrighted work.

2.  Simply acknowledging the source of the copyrighted material is not a substitute for obtaining the copyright owner’s permission. (Bloggers Take Note!)

3. If the copyright owner licenses their work under a creative common license, then the blogger or writer is free to share, copy, and distribute the work if the blogger attributes the work to the copyright owner and does not use the work for commercial purposes (financial gain)

Copyright infringement is rampant on the internet and copyrighted works do deserve adequate protection.  But re-posting news stories that are simply a reiteration of facts is not copyrightable material and should be reproduced and shared for the public benefit.  If we extend copyright protection to news, it will restrict the free sharing of information.

Latoicha Givens

www.iplaw101.com