WebProNews

Tag: blogging

  • What is Fair Use? You Tell Us.

    What is fair use? It’s a question that doesn’t seem to go away. Traditional media publications often throw blogs under the bus for borrowing quotes and spreading news to their own audiences. While there are certainly plenty of cases in which blogs do trample on the concept of fair use, to say that blogs in general follow this practice is simply absurd. In fact, as we looked at in a recent article, traditional media publications "borrow" from blogs as well, and often don’t even give the credit that most professional bloggers would give without thinking twice.

    An LA Times piece this week looks at a publication – the Las Vegas Review Journal – that has reportedly filed over 30 lawsuits against blogs that it claims use its content without permission, leading author James Rainey to ask, "So what is fair use?"

    How would you describe fair use? Tell us in the comments.

    Again, this is not a new question, but it is one that has yet to be collectively resolved. We took it upon ourselves to reach out to a number of media professionals from both blogs and traditional media publications, as well as lawyers, and readers, with the aim of presenting a well-rounded view of how these different parts of the media-picture see fair use. Unfortunately, not everyone was too eager to lend their opinions on such a touchy subject, and I have yet to receive any real response from any of the traditional media publications I contacted (I’ll update if I do).

    Viewpoints

    Rich Ord, CEO of the iEntry Network and Publisher of WebProNews says, "Fair use is taking small amounts of content in order to add perspective or additional information to your own content. A publisher should also link to the content source and credit them accordingly."

    Marshall Kirkpatrick, Co-Editor, VP of Content Development and Lead Blogger at popular tech blog ReadWriteWeb tells WebProNews, "Aggregation and filtering is a beautiful thing.  Give me a day with a HuffPo appearance and it’s a good day for us at ReadWriteWeb. Excerpts with as much as three paragraphs, with attribution and a link, are a great way to add value and share traffic. Fair use paves the way for rapid content creation and curation – I have no fear of it at all."

    Here’s how one of our Facebook fans described fair use: "I see fair use as similar to writing papers. Name the source and link, if necessary and do your homework. Some companies do not allow use of their materials at all without their permission. There aren’t documented rules as there are for writing papers such as the writing formats MLA or APA but they do include rules to follow when using online content in writing."

    The Law

    Attorney John Burton, who practices Trademark/Copyright and Internet/Technology law, tells us: "Fair use is a legal doctrine under U.S Federal.Copyright law that provides for limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the copyright owners, such as for news, research, teaching and commentary.  It provides for the legal use of third-party copyrighted material under a four-factor test:

    1.    the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

    2.    the nature of the copyrighted work;

    3.    the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and

    4.    the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work."

    "Kelly v. Arriba Soft Corporation (2003) set a strong benchmark for fair use and the Internet," Burton continues. "Arriba Soft was found to have violated copyright without a fair use defense in the use of thumbnail pictures and inline linking from Kelly’s website in Arriba’s image search mechanisms.  The decision was appealed."

    "On appeal, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found in favor of the defendant," he continues. "In reaching its decision, the court utilized the above-mentioned four-factor analysis. First, it found the purpose of creating the thumbnail images as previews to be sufficiently transformative, noting that they were not meant to be viewed at high resolution like the original artwork was. Second, the fact that the photographs had already been published diminished the significance of their nature as creative works. Third, although normally making a ‘full’ replication of a copyrighted work may appear to violate copyright, here it was found to be reasonable and necessary in light of the intended use. Lastly, the court found that the market for the original photographs would not be substantially diminished by the creation of the thumbnails. To the contrary, the thumbnail searches could increase exposure of the originals."

    Interpretation

    So how would this apply to written content? Would a snippet and a link, designed to send traffic to the original source, be the text equivalent of a small thumbnail increasing the exposure of the original?  It’s not so clear.

    Burton seems to recommend a better safe than sorry approach. "Essentially, caution is the word when using copyrighted content of another on your website," he says. "I strongly recommend receiving written authorization from the copyright holder prior to redistributing their work or link, especially if there is a commercial interest in why you are using the work."

    WebProNews spoke to Attorney Michael Donaldson of the law firm Donaldson & Callif and Pat Aufderheide, the Executive Director for the Center of Social Media at American University, who has worked with the university’s law school on developing best practices for fair use, at SXSW a couple months ago. They also spoke about fair use from the legal perspective. Watch this clip if you’d like to hear more on the subject from this standpoint:

    "Fair use is part of copyright law, and it says you have the right to use other people’s copyrighted material without licensing it, without paying for it, or even asking them permission under some circumstances," said Aufderheide. "The law itself is rather vague, so the question is , ‘how do you interpret that law?’"

    "The newspaper people had me pretty much in their corner until they went after the cat people," writes James Rainey, the LA Times writer who covered the Las Vegas Review Journal story. Basically, the story is about a newspaper publication going after dozens of blogs for using content. To what extent this content was used is not really delved into, but the highlighted example is of a small cat blog that doesn’t even have ads on it, and could hardly be considered a competing publication. In all "fairness," you should read Rainey’s story for more on these suits.

    Regardless of how you interpret fair use law, it appears that the traditional media will continue to put pressure on new media. One minute the New York Times is talking about how important blogs are, and the next, it’s keeping feed readers from using its content. Of course, as Search Engine Land Editor-in-Chief Danny Sullivan recently showcased, traditional media also pushes the boundaries of fair use itself. It goes both ways. Unfortunately, traditional publications are more likely to have the funding that bloggers may not have, when it comes to legal disputes.

    Are traditional media publications justified in going after bloggers who use samples of their content and link to the original? Share your thoughts in the comments.

  • Are You Blogging Within Your Fair Use Rights?

    With all of the struggles and controversies surrounding the news industry these days, there is a lot of confusion out there about what falls under fair use and what doesn’t. The more savvy bloggers who have been in the game for a while usually have a better grasp on the concept, but there are still plenty of others who aren’t so well versed. After all, anyone can start a blog, and not everyone comes from a news or legal background.

    Do you every worry about quoting major media sources? Discuss here.

    At SXSW last month, WebProNews spoke with Pat Aufderheide, the Executive Director for the Center of Social Media at American University, who has worked with the university’s law school on developing best practices for fair use, and Attorney Michael Donaldson of the law firm Donaldson & Callif.

    "Fair use is part of copyright law, and it says you have the right to use other people’s copyrighted material without licensing it, without paying for it, or even asking them permission under some circumstances," said Aufderheide. "The law itself is rather vague, so the question is , ‘how do you interpret that law?’"

    Good thing we had a lawyer present. "Fair use is rooted in the first amendment," said Donaldson. "So if you’re telling a story, and you need or want, and it’s reasonable to use little pieces of other people’s stuff to tell that story, that’s protected as a first amendment right."

    "If you keep in mind the first amendment origins of fair use, you’ll have a good starting point," he added.

    According to Aufderheide, one thing judges will ask is "did you use this for a different purpose than the original or are you merely taking something that somebody’s actually selling, and getting it for free?" Basically – are you taking market value from them?

    In the case of news and blogging, she says some of the traditional media sites have legitimate issues legally, but not always. She equates a great deal of the pushback from traditional media to hysteria over a dying business model. If you take a whole article from the Washington Post for example, and put it on your site, you’re taking what belongs to them and taking market value from them. This is basically plagiarism anyway. On the other hand. However…

    "Bloggers have a perfect right to quote in context, and to say ‘the Washington Post said this’ and ‘here’s how the Times covered it’, and here’s a link to the whole article if you want to look at that," says Aufderheide. "And they have a perfect right as well to quote pictures, images, and to link to video on a commercial site that is producing that stuff, once again within context. What is it that they’re doing that is different from the original site? And then I think bloggers are doing just fine, and they’re employing their fair use rights just like scholars do every day when they quote several previous scholars and write in their articles that these previous scholars didn’t know what they were talking about when they said x, y, and z, and I’m right."

    Donaldson added that "there’s no first amendment right to steal something and make money off it," and to just keep in mind those 1st amendment origins of fair use law.

    Watch the video above for a great deal more insight into the fair use issue.

    What is your take on fair use? We’d like to hear your thoughts.

  • Twitter Shows Embeddable Tweet Example

    Twitter Shows Embeddable Tweet Example

    Update: Twitter has made an update to tha post saying, "No, really. It’s very simple. Just a snippet of code you’ll be able to use to generate simple, selectable flat-HTML tweets like the one we used here."

    Original Article:Twitter has a post up on its Media blog today talking about the use of tweets in articles. Basically, the company appears to be completely in favor of journalists and bloggers inserting tweets to articles (even pasting them in as images).

    However, the company also claims to have a better way to do it, and that way will be revealed tomorrow. Twitter says a pasted-in image of a tweet is "a bit of a hack," adding, "We have a simple alternative to propose; it’s coming tomorrow."

    One can only assume, as suggested here, that Twitter will indeed launch an embed feature (not unlike YouTube) to insert tweets with a snippet of code. It’s possible that Twitter could have something else in mind. Not all of the company’s ideas are entirely conventional, but that would make sense, would it not?

    Tweets to be embeddable?

    It would certainly make things easier for those of us who do like to cite Twitterers in articles. Twitter has been well established as a channel for breaking news, and where important figures may offer bits of news, wisdom, or other generally interesting nuggets of text. Making it as easy as possible to quote them is in the best interest for all involved.

    In fact, Twitter talks about how its solution would ensure quotes are accurate. Nothing wrong with that.

  • Did You Think Making Money Blogging Would Be Easy?

    Ever since blogging became popular, people have been trying to make a living at it. A few have been successful, but many eventually give up, or if they actually do continue to blog, they aren’t making anything. In a session I attended about blogging at SXSW last month, one of the panelists asked the question, "how many of you have a blog?" Nearly everyone in the room raised their hands. Next, they asked, "how many of you are earning with your blog?" Very few people raised their hands.

    That does not mean it can’t be done. It’s just going to take some work. We talked to Darren Rowse, one of the most famous people in the Blogosphere for making blogging profitable (he runs ProBlogger), who shared some tips on how to do it.

    Have you been able to make your blog profitable? Tell us about it.

    It’s Going to Take a While

    As Rowse notes, a lot of people jump into blogging thinking they’re going to start earning quickly. That is very likely not the case. He says it’s about finding a good niche – something you’re passionate about. Ask yourself what your interests are, and if your topics are things you can see yourself writing about regularly for years.

    When looking for a niche to take on, Rowse suggests doing  some  research on how many people are searching for that type of content. Use tools like Google Trends. Look at how many people are advertising on this type of content. Is there enough content to write about on the topic or will you eventually run out of things to say?

    Frequency

    As Rowse says, there’s no rule for how often you should blog. People have been successful writing a post a week or less. Still, your chances of growing success are increased along with your frequency. Think about it.

    "Every post you write is a doorway into your site," says Rowse. "If you’re only writing 52 posts a year, that’s 52 places people can connect with you through Google or through Twitter. If you’re writing 365 (one a day), then you’ve exponentially increased the amount of places that people can find you."

    Despite the beliefs of some, blogging is not dead, and it’s not dying by the hands of social media. Social media can be the blogger’s best friend for sharing content, and attracting more readers.

    Guy Gonzalez of F+W Media made a pretty good point in that session at SXSW: "Anyone who thinks Twitter is a substitute for a blog probably wasn’t a good blogger to begin with."

    Last year, we looked at some polls that Rowse conducted, finding that more people preferred to have more blog readers, as opposed to more Twitter followers. Granted, Twitter use has grown significantly since then, but I don’t know that the outcome would be much different now. A lot of bloggers are using Twitter simply to drive traffic to their blog posts.

    Either way, when it comes to content, it shouldn’t be about the format (blogging vs. Twitter). It should be about what you have to say, and whether you can convey that to the right audience. More on that here.

    Share your own tips for an effective blogging strategy.

  • Blogging vs. Twitter: It Shouldn’t Be About the Format

    In case you were wondering, Twitter is not killing blogging. No matter how many times this is said, there is still this notion out there that blogs aren’t needed when you can simply express what you’re feeling to the audience who is interested through Twitter (or Facebook or other social networks). The fact of the matter is, yes – you can do this with Twitter or Facebook, but blogs exist just the same, and the blogs and social networks frequently complement one another.

    Social networks drive traffic to blogs. Blogs drive followers to social profiles. If a reader is interested enough to read your blog on a regular basis, there is a good chance they are interested enough to follow you on Twitter, and likewise if they care enough to follow you on Twitter, they may be interested in what you have to say on your blog.

    Scott RosenbergAt SXSW recently Scott Rosenberg, author of Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It’s Becoming, and Why It Matters said when he told people he was writing about the history of blogging, he got two very different responses. One was along the lines of "Blogging is dead. Why do you want to write about that?" The other was more like, "A history of blogging? How can you write a history of it when it is still so new?" Rosenberg’s anecdote represents the diversity of perspectives around blogging.

    Another perspective is that blogs and Twitter are like different kinds of paper. Asking, "Should I use a blog or use Twitter?" is like asking "What kind of paper should I use in my book?" said tech blogger Josh Fruhlinger on that same panel, who also made the most reasonable point on the subject: the idea that that there’s someone out there thinking, ‘should I be a blogger or a Twitterer or a Facebooker’ "makes me cranky," he said. In other words, don’t focus on the format rather than the content. 

    Guy Gonzalez of F+W Media made another great point: "Anyone who thinks Twitter is a substitute for a blog probably wasn’t a good blogger to begin with."

    Last year, we looked at some polls that ProBlogger’s Darren Rowse conducted, finding that more people preferred to have more blog readers, as opposed to more Twitter followers. Granted, Twitter use has grown significantly since then, but I don’t know that the outcome would be much different now. A lot of bloggers are using Twitter simply to drive traffic to their blog posts.

    As WebProNews recently discussed with Google’s Matt Cutts, people often seem to be fixated on the idea that some new service or technology always has to kill another service or technology, and in most cases, it just doesn’t happen that way. Blogging vs. Twitter has been debated for several years now. They’re both still living together in harmony.

  • Google Deletes Blogger Posts

    Update: This article is nearly a year old, but pretty much the same thing is happening again (or still). A number of popular music blogs have been removed from Blogger, some are saying without warning. When we covered this before, Blogger Product Manager Rick Klau left us the following comment (as seen in the comments section):

    Hi – I’m a product manager on Blogger, and I wanted to clarify a few things. Google only removes content when legally obligated, and under U.S. law, we are required to take down content when we receive a valid DMCA notice. When we we do this, we send an email to the blogger using the address associated with their account and submit the original DMCA notice to chillingeffects.org. If a blogger wishes to challenge the DMCA notice, they can file a counter notice, at which time the original DMCA complainant has 14 days to file suit, or we will reinstate the removed content. The whole policy is explained in more detail here: http://www.google.com/blogger_dmca.html.

    A good reminder for our users is to ensure that the e-mail address associated with their blog is valid and an address they check regularly; any DMCA-related notices we send are sent to that address. You can also find more info or ask questions in our support forum at http://groups.google.com/group/blogger-help.

    At Blogger Buzz, the official blog for Blogger, Klau says:

    Last summer, we updated our enforcement of the DMCA. Our current policy is that when we receive a DMCA complaint, we:

    • Notify the blogger about the complaint by e-mail and on the Blogger dashboard.
    • Reset the offending post to ‘draft’ status, allowing the blogger to remove the offending content.
    • Send a copy of the complaint to ChillingEffects.org.

    When we receive multiple DMCA complaints about the same blog, and have no indication that the offending content is being used in an authorized manner, we will remove the blog.

     

    Original Article: Ryan Spaulding is a music blogger from Boston who runs the blog Ryan’s Smashing Life, which is hosted by Google’s Blogger. For some reason Blogger has been deleting some of his posts.

    This story was unearthed earlier this month in an LA Weekly article that found the same thing happening to a number of Blogger users. I got in touch with Ryan to find out what he had to say about the situation, and the following interview is the product of that (Not all of Ryan’s opinions necessarily reflect those of WebProNews).

    Chris Crum:  First off, can I get a little background on the story in your words?

    Ryan SpauldingRyan Spaulding: Beginning last summer, I slowly began to notice that several older posts were beginning to disappear. This didn’t come to my attention for some time since I wasn’t in the habit of reading old posts except when I pulled down the material. Sometimes I received emails from frustrated readers who were looking for a topic I had written on – only to find the post deleted.

    I had no reason to think this was anything other than a software glitch at first. There were no takedown notices or emails in my inbox. Then the instances began stacking up – and I began comparing notices with other bloggers. What was initially a series of seemingly unconnected blog post disappearances – by fall, became the topic of discussion in blogger emails and chat rooms. The change of tactic of the industry and the poor handling of  it by blog-host Blogger (Google) was being seen as a conspiracy.

    I have come to love blogging and the integration of a myriad of software add-ons to the blog. Like the vast majority of bloggers, I am not paid for my time, creativity or passion. It is because of my passion for this thing that many of us have come to feel betrayed when we learn that the host of our websites is now in the business of deleting our posts without warning! (It’s an issue of respect. Blogger has proven that they do not respect their own users. Despite the merits of our prior good conduct and years of loyal use of their blogging platform and software – we are considered guilty before having a chance to demonstrate our innocence or at the very least have a chance to pull down the offending material.) Yes, it’s an issue of respect.

    CC:  How many other bloggers have you spoken with that have had similar experiences?

    RS: About a dozen or more to start, but since the piece ran in LA Weekly, I have received email from dozens more vocalizing their support.

    CC: Can you tell me exactly what the deleted posts consisted of?

    RS:     The types of posts removed break down into two basic groups:

    The Deletion of Unsolicited Promotional Posts: A few of these missing posts were "unapproved" posts on signed bands. This means I promote a band’s project and use an mp3 I had seen given away in other locations on the web, and then wrote lengthy pieces, breaking down the songs into their themes and reviewed them based on merit. All pieces were positive and promotional in nature. I tend to not write negative reviews on music;  it runs contrary to the underlying theme of the blog – to support musicians whose work I enjoy. While it hurt to see these posts disappear (why wasn’t I simply contacted to remove the material? ), ultimately I understood the rules about such things.

    The Deletion of Solicited Promotional Posts (They Ask Me to Support the Band): What was truly upsetting was the loss of material that was approved by the labels and the bands themselves. Since I do very few Unsolicited Promo pieces, this is the lion’s share of posts that are deleted. This is at the core of the problem: More than a dozen of these at last count – each requiring four hours or more apiece – were deleted out of my account and without warning.

    Google chooses it’s bed and makes bloggers lay in It. Blogger/Google had the opportunity to choose its tactic when receiving notices. First of all, they could have delineated between longstanding reputable bloggers and those suspected to be leakers. They chose not to do this. Blogger/Google treats everybody the same (the good and the bad!) –They also could have chose the tactic to notify the bloggers of the demand and let us comply. They chose to not take this tactic either and simply delete the posts. Later, they altered this tactic slightly by going ahead and deleting the post and then, later, sent an email explaining their position. The end result is the same. To illustrate how utterly frustrating this is, I will outline what takes place start-to-finish: 

    Ryan's Smashing Life

    I’m a choosy blogger. Each month, I receive many, many albums – both in the mail and through digital. These are always accompanied by a press release asking to promote the band, their album project and tour. In the case when the bands/music labels/PR houses/publicists ask me to use a specific post when I publish the material then I comply. I use the material they request. 

    All of these steps serve to make me an authorized agent for the label. [I fully understand that I do not own the material and need to pull it down immediately if ever asked. This is implicitly understood.]

    CC:  Have you contacted Google about the issue, and if so, what kind of response did you receive?

    RS: They never responded. An "opportunity" (in legalese, of course) offered a means to have the post restored – but like most bloggers, I didn’t have the knowledge or time to fight "city hall" on every post. Especially, since Blogger/Google didn’t even take five minutes to send a simple email response. Nothing professional, nothing courteous. Again, the tactic they choose belies their basic lack of respect for their users – which is why I took up the cause. They have a relative monopoly on blog hosting services and rule with an iron fist.

    Ryan Spaulding

    CC:  Are you concerned that your blog’s reputation might be hurt when people click through to it from other sites, only to find that the content they’re looking for has been removed? How has the removal of these posts impacted your blog’s traffic?

    RS: This is very hard to detect and prove. New people are coming in every day. But if you take a page out of economic studies, the value of "Opportunity Costs" are difficult to measure. If you are a first-time reader and you receive a dead link – you may never return.

    CC:  Have you detected any loss in readership?

    RS: Loyal readers were the ones to actually bring the deletions to my attention. I don’t think I could shake some of these people – they have truly become friends. But as with the prior example, some readers who have not been with the page long – predictably grow irritated at the absence of written material on the page when they repeatedly get dead links. And, they delete their bookmarks and go away.

    CC:  Did you contact the RIAA? If so, what kind of response did you get from them?

    RS: Actually, I firmly believe the majority of the posts weren’t pulled down on RIAA requests – the majority of these came through miscommunication at the label-level. The EU branch of the label doesn’t talk to the US labels. Sometime after the post goes live (with complete approval of the US label) the European branch contacts their legal department when they find the post promoting the band on my site. They choose to not recognize (or simply do not have visibility to the arrangement) and send an email to the IFPI (the British version of the RIAA). This group demands takedown from Blogger/Google.

    I’d like to thank Ryan for taking the time to talk about this. Those interested in this story might also find Last.fm’s story interesting.

    Update: Blogger Product Manger has weighed in on the situation in the comments section.