Do I need copyright permission to copy news on blog?

Question

I am trying to put together a blog and was wondering if I wrote about news articles would I have to ask the permission of each and every news site or paper to use information posted on their sites.

Answer 1

You need to do a little research on "Fair Use" laws.

First, look at web sites and see what their legal blurbs say, and in the papers.

The basic idea is that you can't use huge hunks of things without permission.

But you can say whatever you want, and you can use short quotes, without permission.

But do a little investigation. Actually, if you click Report It on this site, they have a link to legal verbiage on this issue (just don't submit the form!).

You could also look at what other news-based, but individual human blogs do.

Whenever you quote, at all, you need to cite the source.

But you only need permission for big hunks of quotage.

Answer 2

As long as you aren't copying their words verbatim, you can basically repeat anything you hear on the news. IE they do not hold a copyright on what happened, and any information they are printing is going to be public information. You can also quote what public speakers say without worry. And if your blog is not for profit, you are especially safe. It's reproducing text or images and especially video and music  that can get you into trouble.

The other thing you can do (and I recommend) is when you use a picture or text without permission, if you aren't using it for profit, you can claim it as "Fair Use" under US copyright law. Basically you claim it as Fair Use, explain why you are using the image, and attribute the original copyright holder. That makes you pretty safe. IE if you are making a good faith effort to respect people's copyrights and not trying to profit off of someone else's work, the worst that can happen is that someone can tell you to stop using an item.

Of course I am assuming you are living in the USA, it is the only country with a Fair Use provision.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use

I have been blogging for more than two years and I make fairly extensive use of copyrighted images, and I always make a Fair Use statement. And I have been creating web sites for ten years and only once was contacted by an author, and even in that case she said I could keep using her material as long as I supplied the proper information with it.

So my blog has an example of an informal copyright/Fair Use statement at the bottom of every post:

http://unitedcats.wordpress.com/

You are commendable for trying to respect copyrights, read up on copyrights at wikipedia too and it will give you a better idea of what's allowed, but bottom line is...if you are using your own words..you're perfectly fine. And in fact if you are in the USA, you hold the copyright to your own words and others may not use them without permission!

Most sites have copyright information on them too that tell you whether or not you may use their material in any way.

Answer 3

Yes I think you have provide the source like CNN or ABC if you are actually copying their writing. So try to show that you got it from a news network. So yes.