Copyright and re-post ruling.

 Russ Steele

When I find an important article I am inclined to post the full length text. Our local former newspaper editor took exception to his practice, unless I had the permission of the author. Now a judge has ruled that it is OK for non-profit organizations to re-post full length articles that appear in news outlets.

Details from the MIT Technology Review:

Las Vegas-based lawfirm Righthaven has been suing everyone from bloggers to commenters -- anyone who has posted even a portion of the text or images to which it owns the rights. Righthaven doesn't actually make anything, they just buy the rights to stories and images that have gone viral on the web.

Now, according to the Las Vegas Sun, Righthaven has scored what Ars Technica aptly describes as an "own goal": Not only did a Federal judge reject Righthaven's case against the non-profit Center for Intercultural Organizing, the judge also declared that non-profits may re-print entire articles from news outlets under certain circumstances.

The decision hinges on the portion of Fair Use law that declares that it's all right to re-distribute a piece of content as long as it doesn't hurt the market for the original content.

This blog is certainly a non-profit operation, and I am not competing in the same markets. From the ruling, it appears I can post more full length articles in the future without out too much legal worries.   However, I will only post a full length article if I think it is important enough to my blog readers to have the full text.