Copyright infringement?

Question

hi,

Im making my own personal blog. I will be writing my own articles and also wish to have some of the articles i searched and found interesting to be posted and discussed by my own fellow bloggers community. How do i go about doing that without violating copyright?

By the way my blog is a non-profit site and also i cant get through to the owners for permission as they do not reply to my call or my email for a few months now. I just need the article as it is very interesting and general.

One more question will be why is there some website having that same article? And i doubt its a shared permission on that article as it appears very unlikely.

Please help advise me. Thank you and God bless you.

And is there another way of doing it wihout having to wait for the owners permission which is not going to happen?

Answer 1

Your solution is very simple:

Instead of posting the article, post a link to the article.

Solution #2:

Any works can be used and copied as long as you leave a valid refernce to the original source giving them credit for it.

For example, say I wrote this sentence and it was published x magazine, "all dogs are red."

You could put on your blog '... all dogs are red [1]...'

Then have a footnote at the bottom that said:
[1] BeachBum article in X magazine, date, link if it has one for the internet

Answer 2

The only way is with permission, either directly or if the original author says up front that it is acceptable to post the material. Non-profit status does not automatically get you around copyright laws.

The only safe alternative is to link to the article on the original page, and provide a short (1-2 sentence) paraphrase (not quote) for context. That allows you to reference the content without copying it.

Anything else, you should talk with a licensed attorney. Fines for copyright violations can run in the tens of thousands of dollars, and if you are going to be doing significant postings, it's worth getting the professional legal advice.

Answer 3

Where possible, post links instead of full text. That's the easiest solution. (I'm a writer, and my own work has been linked in this way on sites to which I have no connection; it's really very common and presents no legal risk.)
Beyond that, there is what is called "the doctrine of fair use."
Copyrighted material may be quoted from, even in some extended form, in the context of criticism, commentary or academic work. Full reproduction would be going too far, of course, but quoting for illustrative purposes is fine.

The fact that you're a nonprofit makes no real difference in liability if you violate copyright. As to other sites posting certain material; they may be posting w/o permission and just haven't been busted on it, but the risk remains.

Answer 4

The easiest way around this is to put a link to the article in your blog and tell people to right-click on it so that it appears in a new window. I'm glad to see you are concerned about copyright laws. They are easy to infringe on the internet. But, character is what displayed by what you do when you think no one is watching. God bless you, too.

Answer 5

i was actually fired for this. i had a blog and mentioned something about my job. they found out...i think it's really stupid. it doesn't matter if you're not making a profit...the owner of whatever you're putting on there might be concerned that your opinions in your blog can reflect on them. it might not be a good idea.

Answer 6

The law says it is yours