Forum Moderators: phranque
So it would be:
Article Title
------------------------
First Paragraph of Article
------------------------
Link to Article
Am I allowed to copy and paste the first paragraph of another person's article into my site if I am using it to describe my link to that article?
Reprinting an entire article without permission so the viewer doesn't have to go there, as I see a lot of places doing, is bad.
Read the WebmasterWorld TOS #10 [webmasterworld.com]:
No press releases, newsletters, web pages, or copyrighted content may be inserted into WebmasterWorld posts. Minor fair use excerpts of less than one paragraph (4 sentences) may be used if the content is publicly available on the Internet. All other forms of inserted content from press releases, newsletters, web pages, or any other copyrighted content placed into messages will be removed without exception. A link to the content is acceptable and appropriate.
So you're aloud to quote about a paragraph, many times less than a paragraph 4 sentences out of a article. You may right your own option description etc. but make sure the "First Paragraph of Article" is less that 4 sentences.
Other than that, Go for it!
Sid
He's not asking about posting articles here, but on his own website.
Remember RSS? People do it everyday with it - thats what its actually meant for, one reason is to get news updates on your desktop (with a program such as FeedReader) and two is so that people can show the latest articles on their site and link to it.
With the link, in some RSS data feeds , they offer a description, which is the first paragraph of the article, it contains up to about 4 or 5 sentences (depending on how long the first paragraph is).
I think you should go for it, but I'm not a expert on this, so you may want to read the Slashdot RSS TOS - if it has one.
You're aloud to add as much as your own content you want, which means, you could quote the first paragraph coming from the RSS in Italics, then have your own stuff at the bottom of it. Makes sense?
Sid
about a paragraph, many times less than a paragraph 4 sentences out of a article.
Okay, I'm not a lawyer, but ... just because the WebmasterWorld TOS suggest a paragraph or 4 sentences, you shouldn't infer that to be what the law allows as fair use.
I believe a lawyer would step in here and tell you that the courts have never established a legal precedent for "how much is okay"; it's all handled on a case-by-case basis, and there are other factors to consider (aside from "how much") in determining whether a use constitutes fair use or not.
I'd recommend this Stanford University article [fairuse.stanford.edu] for learning more about the factors involved in fair use. In fact, I'd recommend Stanford's entire Copyright and Fair Use library. And I'm not an alumnus. :)
In fact, they're one of my alma mater's biggest rivals!
Okay, I'm not a lawyer, but ... just because the WebmasterWorld TOS suggest a paragraph or 4 sentences, you shouldn't infer that to be what the law allows as fair use.
I was actually stating how a long a RSS <description> can be - had nothing to do with the WebmasterWorld TOS.
But you're right, the Stanford article does state a lot of facts.
Sid
I was actually stating how a long a RSS <description> can be - had nothing to do with the WebmasterWorld TOS.
And, as far as I can tell, it had nothing to do with the original question either.
And, as far as I can tell, it had nothing to do with the original question either.
like what you just said has something to do with the original question asked in the thread?
What I'm trying to say, is that using RSS, people can show the data across their site without hand-updating it, they do it dynamically. If one article is posted in for example Slashdot, its not surprising to find at least a 100 copies of that article on the web. So its done all the time, but showing data which is not in the RSS itself, and copying the whole article, may be in-appropriate (as I already said - I'm not a lawyer.).
But zulufox has clearly stated that he/she would like to copy only the first paragraph of the article and then have your own content at the bottom of it. That will create absolutely no problem I think if the first paragraph is copied from the RSS data. RSS is always free for showing it on your site or using it, if the credit remains and no information is changed.
Sid
In the US the fair use provision is quite liberal and what you want to do will probably be alright.
However in the UK and countries with a legal system inherited from the UK (e.g. Australia, Canada, NZ, Singapore ...) the fair dealing provision is much stricter and what you want to do may infringe on the copyright.
It is hard to be anymore specific without knowing more details. Really the best thing to do is contact the site whose content you want to copy. Explain what you are going to do and ask if it is alright for you to do so. They'll probably say it is fine.
How I managed:
Direct approach
Ahead of time contacted newspaper chief editors
Sent a link and explained clearly what I intended to do with their content
Worked well I got official clearance from the Times, Washington Post, Wall Street, PC world and you name it
Only once in 3 years did I received a very decent and polite email explaining why they rather not do it
So my advice: Get it in writing, be very straightforward
Good luck
Henry
What I'm trying to say, is that using RSS, people can show the data across their site without hand-updating it, they do it dynamically.
Which is fine, but again has nothing to do with the question.
He asks if it's OK to post the first paragraph of certain articles onto his site and then link to them, and uses an example of Slashdot doing the same sort of thing. Then you first tell him whether he is allowed to post them on *this* site and then tell him how to post *Slashdot* articles onto his site. Neither one is at all what he asked about.
Yes, obviously, if a site goes to the trouble of setting up an RSS feed and lets you use it, then you can use it. But then that's like answering "Is it OK to use photos I've taken at a park on my website?" with "If the park has a webcam and encourages you to use the code on your site, go ahead and use it" (after previously having said, "No, you can't post photos here on WebmasterWorld).
But then again, it would require a lot of time contacting the editor of that single article, waiting to get a reply etcetra, until then, there maybe even a newer version on that piece of news.
So, why not just write your own content on the article and also mention in the post that you've taken resources from that article (wherever its from) - linking to it. Even though I'm not a lawyer - as I said above - I can guarantee you this is legal, why? because I do it, and about 30 other blogists whose blog I read do it too. The others have very popular blogs which have been running for years. So I don't see any harm in writing your own content and giving credits to its resources.
Sid
