quincy
Senior Member
I had planned to write this last month, after reading a post submitted by a newer member who had excerpted large portions of a copyrighted text in his post. But I got distracted and forgot. 
On the whole, the regular members of this site know that copying and pasting from works created by the federal government, and most works created by state governments, is allowable under U.S. Copyright Law. These materials are in the public domain and anyone can use for their own purposes any public domain work without obtaining authorization from the author of the work. Links provided that direct a user to the original copyrighted material is also permitted (under most circumstances in the U.S.).
However, what exactly can be published from a copyrighted text to illustrate a point is many times not as clear, and attribution of the work alone is not enough to avoid possible infringement. The regular members are generally careful about quoting from copyrighted material and do not use excessive amounts, will credit the source, or will provide links to the source.
Back in March of this year, there was an interesting copyright infringement suit decided in the U.S. Federal District Court, Southern District of New York. The Associated Press sued the Meltwater News Service over Meltwater's excerpting of copyrighted AP news articles. The Court decided in the Associated Press' favor. See Associated Press v Meltwater U.S. Holdings, No 12 Civ 1087 (DLC), 2013 WL 1153979 (S.D.N.Y. 3/20/2013).
The excerpt amounts that Meltwater used varied but, at times, approached as much as 60% of the article's content, and almost always included the key elements of the story quoted verbatim. These excerpts were then distributed to Meltwater subscribers. In the infringement case, Meltwater used (among other failed defenses) the "doctrine of fair use."
U.S. copyright law's fair use doctrine allows for the limited use of copyrighted works for the purposes of criticism, comment, education or news reporting. What defines "limited" and "fair use" is often left for a court to decide, when a copyright holder objects to the use of his copyrighted material and sues over its unauthorized use.
What a court looks at to determine whether the use of copyrighted material is a fair use or not is the purpose and character of the use (e.g., is it a commercial use or transformative?), the nature of the work (e.g., fiction or nonfiction?), the amount or substantiality of the portion used in relationship to the work as a whole (e.g., one line from a 5-line poem? one paragraph from a 250-page novel? a vital portion?), and the effect of the use on the market for or value of the work.
Meltwater did not argue the fact that it took AP articles and republished excerpts but relied primarily on "fair use" to support its defense. The Court reviewed the elements of fair use and determined that what was excerpted from the articles were either the "hearts" of the stories (the vital portions) or substantial amounts of the copyrighted text, agreeing with the Associated Press that Meltwater infringed multiple times on their copyrighted articles.
For additional cases to review (cases that supported the Associated Press' infringement argument), you can look up Los Angeles News Service v Tullo, out of the 9th Circuit, and Pacific & Southern v Duncan, out of the 11th Circuit.
Although this Associated Press decision breaks no new legal ground, it can be a good reminder for the copiers and pasters among us to be careful when making use of another's copyrighted material without the permission of the copyright holder.
On the whole, the regular members of this site know that copying and pasting from works created by the federal government, and most works created by state governments, is allowable under U.S. Copyright Law. These materials are in the public domain and anyone can use for their own purposes any public domain work without obtaining authorization from the author of the work. Links provided that direct a user to the original copyrighted material is also permitted (under most circumstances in the U.S.).
However, what exactly can be published from a copyrighted text to illustrate a point is many times not as clear, and attribution of the work alone is not enough to avoid possible infringement. The regular members are generally careful about quoting from copyrighted material and do not use excessive amounts, will credit the source, or will provide links to the source.
Back in March of this year, there was an interesting copyright infringement suit decided in the U.S. Federal District Court, Southern District of New York. The Associated Press sued the Meltwater News Service over Meltwater's excerpting of copyrighted AP news articles. The Court decided in the Associated Press' favor. See Associated Press v Meltwater U.S. Holdings, No 12 Civ 1087 (DLC), 2013 WL 1153979 (S.D.N.Y. 3/20/2013).
The excerpt amounts that Meltwater used varied but, at times, approached as much as 60% of the article's content, and almost always included the key elements of the story quoted verbatim. These excerpts were then distributed to Meltwater subscribers. In the infringement case, Meltwater used (among other failed defenses) the "doctrine of fair use."
U.S. copyright law's fair use doctrine allows for the limited use of copyrighted works for the purposes of criticism, comment, education or news reporting. What defines "limited" and "fair use" is often left for a court to decide, when a copyright holder objects to the use of his copyrighted material and sues over its unauthorized use.
What a court looks at to determine whether the use of copyrighted material is a fair use or not is the purpose and character of the use (e.g., is it a commercial use or transformative?), the nature of the work (e.g., fiction or nonfiction?), the amount or substantiality of the portion used in relationship to the work as a whole (e.g., one line from a 5-line poem? one paragraph from a 250-page novel? a vital portion?), and the effect of the use on the market for or value of the work.
Meltwater did not argue the fact that it took AP articles and republished excerpts but relied primarily on "fair use" to support its defense. The Court reviewed the elements of fair use and determined that what was excerpted from the articles were either the "hearts" of the stories (the vital portions) or substantial amounts of the copyrighted text, agreeing with the Associated Press that Meltwater infringed multiple times on their copyrighted articles.
For additional cases to review (cases that supported the Associated Press' infringement argument), you can look up Los Angeles News Service v Tullo, out of the 9th Circuit, and Pacific & Southern v Duncan, out of the 11th Circuit.
Although this Associated Press decision breaks no new legal ground, it can be a good reminder for the copiers and pasters among us to be careful when making use of another's copyrighted material without the permission of the copyright holder.
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