grodscorp@grods.comQuoting or thieving?
 | Posted by The Editor on Thursday 19 June 2008, 2:24 pm Categories: Blogosphere, Media Tags: AP, quotes |
There’s a big story in the US at the moment about how wire news service AP is looking closely at copyright laws for a way to charge bloggers for quoting from their stories.
The AP recently sent seven takedown notices to [a] social news site for the offense of reposting a few sentences or more and reprinting their headlines, sometimes linking those sentences and headlines to the full stories generated from the New York-based media concern.
Dr “Tingtong” John Ray at A Western Heart has picked up on the story*, which is kinda ironic given his habit of reposting entire news articles as his own posts without adding any real content of his own. Last week he published a post which contained three full news articles from other sources with only this line of his own writing.
Three current articles below
But let’s put aside the law for a moment and think about this in ethical and moral terms. News organisations put content on their websites for free in exchange for assaulting your eyeballs with ads to recoup the cost and turn a profit. When a blogger cut-and-pastes giant swathes of the article into their own site, even if there is a link back to the original article, the likelihood of a reader consuming the news organisation’s advertisements is severely reduced. Even if the blogger only quotes a few lines or a paragraph with a source link the chance of the blog reader consuming the original ads is still reduced. Is it therefore wrong (not legally though, remember) for bloggers to quote news articles? And if so, is there a limit to how much the blogger should quote?
Discuss.
* Don’t you just love the final line of Tingtong’s post? “I intend just to ignore the whole thing. Three of my blogs get around 1,000 hits per day but I am still way below the radar, I think. Not a bad place to be in this crazy age.” Tosser.
GrodsThink Ep.31 (16/9/08)
Thursday 19 June 2008, 3:00 pm #Wah
I always provide a link to any story I quote and only reproduce attributed (hyperlinked to source) text when it’s integeral to the story.
I want money for being their link bitch.
Pics are another matter - I’m amazed we get away with using copyrighted pics.
Thursday 19 June 2008, 3:15 pm #Ant Rogenous
This bullshit just won’t fly. Nice try, though, Arseociated Press.
Thursday 19 June 2008, 3:19 pm #Damian
Associated Press is clearly just a front for the worldwide socialist conspiracy to censor bloggers. Headed by Kevin Rudd, of course.
Thursday 19 June 2008, 3:20 pm #Thalesian
I think that any advertising is good advertising.
AP shouldn’t be bitching about people linking to thier sites if there is a chance that the blogs reader will clink on the link and view the full story…
It’s just counter-productive.
Thursday 19 June 2008, 3:21 pm #Thalesian
Click on the link…
/Slaps Head/
Thursday 19 June 2008, 3:22 pm #Thalesian
/Slaps Forehead/…
This just isn’t my day.
Thursday 19 June 2008, 3:25 pm #John Surname
Iain Hall would be broke in 24 hours.
Thursday 19 June 2008, 3:29 pm #John Surname
Gold comment from Eugene!
“They would be much more likely to get hit with sanctions for bringing a frivilous (sic) law suit (sic) except in China, Iran, or Canada.”
Thursday 19 June 2008, 3:29 pm #Zombie Mao
Iain Hall would be broke in 24 hours.
I am starting to like this new AP policy…
Thursday 19 June 2008, 3:31 pm #Ant Rogenous
Damian, if you keep dropping Midnight Sun links in here, I’m going to dob you in to the litter hotline. Fair dinkum, Aurora is certifiable.
Thursday 19 June 2008, 3:36 pm #John Surname
Bless Aurora. That article is wicked satire.
Best website EVER:
http://dancingfromgenesis.wordpress.com/
Thursday 19 June 2008, 3:57 pm #keri
Holy fuck. It took me three read-throughs for that website to make any sense whatsoever.
I include a link and talk aout the story without quoting unless it’s very relevant.
I don’t think I’ve ever quoted without a link, but I have referred to a story without quoting or linking in the past.
Thursday 19 June 2008, 4:03 pm #Krypto
presumably this news organisation is not one zot interested in providing a forum for public debate, bloggers for the most part are.
I wonder if this ruling ISN’T tossed out on it’s ear where it will end?
Don’t cut out articles from the newspaper to aid in discussion forums in a high school current events class, you’ll end up in court.
Leave your read copy of the newspaper on the train for someone else to pick up and read, you’ve committed copyright violation.
It’s a noxious and vexatious proposal, the news media involved seem to be trying to copyright information for private gain which by rights belongs to the public.
It’s the information equivalent of geneticly modified food crops if you ask me.
Thursday 19 June 2008, 4:55 pm #magic bellybutton
I have on occasion been guilty of making limited comments and posting a quote - but I always link to the source of the information.
Pictures on the other hand … since I just download them onto my computer for later use, I don’t have any idea where I originally sourced it.
Quite frankly, I think it is utter bullshit. They’re getting the revenue from the ads anyway, regardless of whether people hit the original site. And how many of us actually click on those bloody ads on the news sites anyway? I actually find them annoying - particularly those ones which take up your entire screen right when you’re in the middle of reading an article. It’s because of these kinds of ads that I DON’T click on the links half the time.
And let’s not forget if a person has more than a cursory interest in what is being said on the blog, they’re going to click on the link to find out more.
It seems to me that they’re just annoyed that many bloggers are frequently much better writers than their “journalists” and are likely to be more even handed/upfront about their bias.
Thursday 19 June 2008, 7:41 pm #Mikey
I think we come under comment and review. I talked to the copyright dudes because I was sick of a certain someone lifting entire slabs of my blog. They said that to reproduce text for purposes of comment is considered fair. So all you have to do is have 20 words or so about your views on it and there you go!
Thursday 19 June 2008, 7:54 pm #Jeremy Sear
The Editor has inspired me to write my own post on this very topic.
Thursday 19 June 2008, 11:16 pm #Ray Dixon
Even if the blogger only quotes a few lines or a paragraph with a source link the chance of the blog reader consuming the original ads is still reduced.
I’d suggest that in most cases the chances are enhanced and that the blogger, by providing quotes and a link, is actually providing a gateway to the original article and introducing new potential ‘customers’ - at no charge!
I think quoting whole articles is wrong though.
Friday 20 June 2008, 10:08 am #Jason
Surname that blog put me off my breakfast.
Friday 20 June 2008, 10:37 am #John Surname
Yeah, it’s pretty disturbing. Midnight Sun affiliated, of course.
Friday 20 June 2008, 11:00 am #keri
I’m tipping that Surname is used to putting people of their breakfast.
Friday 20 June 2008, 11:43 am #Jeremy
I’ll second that prediction.
Saturday 21 June 2008, 10:43 am #John Surname
That’s right. I put people off their breakfasts and onto myself.
Woof!
Hey, guess which bearded moron emailed The Ed to whinge about being mentioned?
Saturday 21 June 2008, 4:25 pm #Krypto
he’s an insult to beards really, Gillette’s best friend.
Saturday 21 June 2008, 4:30 pm #Bridgit Gread
Don’t tell me - the same bearded moron who scans Grods and a half-dozen other blogs in the hope of finding his name, so that he can whinge about being mentioned?
Saturday 21 June 2008, 5:28 pm #Chuck A. Spear
Nah, John was talking about Sir Iain Hall from Parrs Wood High in Manchester. He can’t be mentioned here either and will no doubt e-mail The Editor telling him how to run his blog.
Saturday 21 June 2008, 8:54 pm #John Surname
The very same Iain Hall who tells me off for apparently “policing” Keri’s blog. The flaming hypocrite.
Saturday 21 June 2008, 10:09 pm #Chuck A. Spear
Nah, it must be that other Iain Hall who feeds his archives to the other Leon Bertrand to be used on the other Slanderyou blog to have a go at the other Jeremy Sear.