Newspaper Chain’s New Business Plan: Copyright Suits

[mrjarrell]

Since it worked so well for RIAA and the movie companies it was only a matter of time till some dillweed did the same with newspapers, (in a vain attempt to save a dying industry). This is why it's always better to use a snippet of an article and link back to the original. That's fair use under the DMCA. Copying full articles, (unless you know the publishers track record) can get a forum in trouble. This guy represents the Las Vegas Review-Journal, for now but is planning to spread out to other properties and start litigating against bloggers and forums where their content has been posted. Whether he decides to be a dick and go after snippets is debatable, since they're covered already under fair use. Just a heads up. I often go by the LVRJ for their editorials and some content, but I'll certainly think twice about linking to anything there in the future. No telling how many other dinosaur papers will join in on this scheme.

via Wired
Needless to say...go to the source to read the rest.

 

[printcraft]

Would this go along with if you don't want it used, don't post it on the internet?

 

[mrjarrell]

Would this go along with if you don't want it used, don't post it on the internet?

It would in my mind.

 

[jbombelli]

So why not start accounts on DU, Huffington Post, Daily Kos, Brady Bunch Pages, etc., and via anonymous proxy and public computers start posting tons of articles from that paper?

 

[thej27]

Sounds just like the patent trolls to me. Maybe we should have a posting rule on INGO that only a portion of an news article can be posted with a link to read the rest at the source. Then if someone posts the whole article the mods can just delete it quickly or edit it to only have the first few paragraphs.

As annoying as that sounds I could see a forum about guns and gun owners becoming a tempting and probably one of the first targets by lawyers who probably don't like guns. I would hate to see this place get hit by multiple fines.

Plus with our membership growing all of the political and news articles posted and trackbacks from the main article to forums where the article is linked and discussed that could happen sooner than you would think.

 

[mrjarrell]

Sounds just like the patent trolls to me. Maybe we should have a posting rule on INGO that only a portion of an news article can be posted with a link to read the rest at the source. Then if someone posts the whole article the mods can just delete it quickly or edit it to only have the first few paragraphs.

As annoying as that sounds I could see a forum about guns and gun owners becoming a tempting and probably one of the first targets by lawyers who probably don't like guns. I would hate to see this place get hit by multiple fines.

Plus with our membership growing all of the political and news articles posted and trackbacks from the main article to forums where the article is linked and discussed that could happen sooner than you would think.

There are no fines involved, since it's not really a crime. The monetary amounts involved are from the lawsuits that are filed against the site owners. I've mentioned this a few times in the past and not much comes from it. Like yourself, I'd hate to see INGO hit with a suit, (not that it's likely to happen). DMCA notices should really be required before a suit can even take place and the courts are likely to rule that way, since that's how the RIAA and their ilk have had to operate where music blogs are concerned. Send a DMCA notice and then report the site if they keep doing what you dislike.

 

[henktermaat]

This Nevada paper got The Armed Citizen, one of my favorite sites.

 

[CarmelHP]

....This is why it's always better to use a snippet of an article and link back to the original. That's fair use under the DMCA. .....Whether he decides to be a dick and go after snippets is debatable, since they're covered already under fair use. ......

Just because you chose snippets doesn't make it fair use. You don't get to decide. There's a balancing test that a court will use to determine whether it deems your use "fair use" or not. That's the problem, the copyright holder is using the cost of defending such a suit as a sword to extort a few thousand dollars at a time out of websites by merely alleging infringement. It's time for Congress to end these shenanigans with copyrights.

 

[TRWXXA]

It's time for Congress to end these shenanigans with copyrights.

Did you say, "shenanigans"?

 

[mrjarrell]

Just because you chose snippets doesn't make it fair use. You don't get to decide. There's a balancing test that a court will use to determine whether it deems your use "fair use" or not. That's the problem, the copyright holder is using the cost of defending such a suit as a sword to extort a few thousand dollars at a time out of websites by merely alleging infringement. It's time for Congress to end these shenanigans with copyrights.

Congress is never going to do that. Everytime they've approached the subject they've sided against user and with big business. Just look at the recording industry. Copyrights are handled primarily by the Library of Congress and they set the rules, especially where DMCA issues are concerned. While someone could go after you for a selection of an article, most ethical publishers won't, since it tends to drive web traffic their way and they understand the benefits. It's tools like this guy who are going to cause a backlash.

 

[dross]

These are the death throes of a dying industry.

 

[CarmelHP]

These are the death throes of a dying industry.

And the vultures are already picking at the bones.

 

[pudly]

I've was reading some info about Righthaven and since they've had such an impact on INGO (with the recent copyright-related rule change), figured I'd share.

What is new here and why is Righthaven suing so many different and unrelated groups? Righthaven’s Innovation? Stooping Lower

Their victim list is all over the board. Not just armedcitizen.com, but political sites, personal blogs, nonprofits, gaming sites, etc. Righthaven Victims

Righthaven's business model is to attack without warning, often hitting hobby sites with little or no money behind them who can't effectively fight back. Here is a site that is sharing a bunch of information. Righthaven Lawsuits

 

[mrjarrell]

Looks like Righthaven is having to pull back from their jihad against sites and bloggers. They went to court against the EFF and Democratic Underground and things didn't go exactly the way they planned. They got counter sued and had to change their game plan. Kudos to the EFF!

Righthaven Says It Will Stop Suing Over News Excerpts | Threat Level | Wired.com

 

[IndySSD]

Looks like Righthaven is having to pull back from their jihad against sites and bloggers. They went to court against the EFF and Democratic Underground and things didn't go exactly the way they planned. They got counter sued and had to change their game plan. Kudos to the EFF!

Righthaven Says It Will Stop Suing Over News Excerpts | Threat Level | Wired.com

Nice!

Good find!


Also, I think it's fair that they want people to keep excerpts to less than 75% of the copyrighted material.

I would say something closer to less than 30% of material 500 words or longer would have been fair but it seems that this judge may have smacked them with the "Common sense stick" hard enough to open their eyes a little bit.

 

[pudly]

Looks like Righthaven is having to pull back from their jihad against sites and bloggers. They went to court against the EFF and Democratic Underground and things didn't go exactly the way they planned. They got counter sued and had to change their game plan. Kudos to the EFF!

Righthaven Says It Will Stop Suing Over News Excerpts | Threat Level | Wired.com

Well, that's nice, but it won't make much of a difference in the wider world. I'm going to leave on my blockers (as mentioned in my post above) on all of their sites. Will INGO and the many other sites that altered policies to prohibit even minimal quoting adjust for this news? The damage is done and is unlikely to be undone.

 

[Leadeye]

Congress sides with whatever makes the most money for law firms. This will be a new revenue stream for them.

 

[Scutter01]

Will INGO and the many other sites that altered policies to prohibit even minimal quoting adjust for this news? The damage is done and is unlikely to be undone.

I don't speak for Fenway, but given that this issue was the major impetus for the policy change, I could foresee us going back to the old policy (or some modification thereof). We don't like the copyright rule any more that you do, but it's our job to protect the site.

 

[rambone]

Thank GOD!!!

 

[mrjarrell]

Personally, I don't trust Righthaven to not to go back on their own words. I haven't seen any evidence, (yet) that shows that this decision has caused them to drop any of their other cases. When the withdraw all of those, then it might just be safe.