« Top Ten Things to Do About Competitors' IP | Main | Patent Searching Tips for Inventors »

November 22, 2004

Blogs, Copyright and Fair Use

I recently got an e-mail asking me about the copyright consequences of posting an original work on a blog. The answer initially seemed easy.

Copyright protection in the U.S. is automatic. Copying without permission is a violation of the law. Authors can publish without giving up any rights.

Then, I thought a little about blogs. They often copy other blogs, without harsh consequences. Maybe this is because copying without permission is okay when it falls within the "fair use" arena. Permission isn't required for things like criticism, comment, teaching, scholarship, research, and news reporting. The determination of whether the use is fair hinges on a number of factors, including profit motive, whether education is the driving force, the amount of the work used, and the market effect.

The real difficulty in the question lies in the nature of the Internet, where most copying is done for some other use.  Blogs are a unique form of publishing. So, whether the bloggers fall within fair use really depends on how blogs are classified.  They often seem to have the purpose of comment, criticism, scholarship, research, and news reporting.  Most bloggers don't seek profit from the publication. Instead, they seek to inform the world of their opinions.  Sometimes they use only snippets of a work, but other times, substantial portions are copied.

Before everyone panics about bloggers being copyright violators, I offer a final thought. Bloggers blog because they want to share their opinion. It is common practice in the blog community for a blog entry to be about half copied material and half commentary. Maybe this common practice means that there is an implicit permission to copy works from other blogs.

I guess it wouldn't hurt to post original thoughts for a change.

Posted by at 06:15 PM.
Permalink: Blogs, Copyright and Fair Use
| Sphere: Related Content