Is a blog a scraper?

Not just concerned with semantics...

[stuartmcdonald]

I'm seeing an increasing number of blogs running Adsense where the blogger reproduces an entire story off say the Trib, precedes it with some fairly banal comment like "Hey I found this interesting story on the Trib today, and I agree with the journo that so and so is a criminal" then posts the entire story, with a link at the bottom of the story running back to the Trib.

I'm asume that qualifies as a scraper...

If instead the blogger was to paraphrase/summarise the story - i.e. rewrite a summary, not just take the leading paragraph - and still have the link back, would others still consider them to be a scraper?

Looking for other's opinions - tks

[larryhatch]

I'd say you have it about right. If the blog copies the entire text,
thats scraping. If they briefly summarize or paraphrase the content,
and then provide a nice honest <a href=http:// type link back, I see no problem.

I would not call THAT scraping at all, but a very welcome link
that few could complain about. - Larry

[diamondgrl]

Well, I do think you have a semantic argument here. I would not qualify it as a scraper site because the usually sense is an automated site, and usually one that doesn't break the law because it takes under the "fair use" threshold of any one particular site. Search engine spam yes, illegal no.

In this case, the guy flat-out breaks the law. He violates the copyright of the newspaper. There's nothing okay about that.