More on copyright and fair use

The magic of the Internet is that it is soooo easy to credit your source. A simple link leads you straight to the original work. Blogging ethics implore and empower us to do so:

BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » A proposal to the Associated Press: A link ethic: "This ... ethic of the link and quote that I have learned from blogs ... says to our readers: Don’t take my word for it, go see for yourself."

Just as in print, copyright protocol should still apply on the web:

PC World - Who owns 'public' content?: "In the same way that I can't reprint a Harry Potter book and start selling it for my own gain, we need to realize that we can't do that with RSS feeds or other Web content either. While Fair Use is OK, you can't just start lifting and reusing entire bodies of work without permission."

One would think this back-linking *should* make authors and copyright holders very happy. The Associated Press, however, has different ideas. Sure, you can publish quotes from the AP, but, even with proper accreditation, it's going to cost you:

Weblogg-ed » $12.50 for Five Words: "$12.50 for Five Words -- That’s what it’s going to cost you to excerpt in your blog any content published by the Associated Press under it’s new pricing structure. According to a pseudo FAQ on copyright that the AP has published..."

At first glimpse, this caused my eyes to roll. However, upon further investigation, AP seems to allow publishing or posting of it's content, if you follow their rules. I suppose that is playing fair. It is their content; they are the copyright holders. They should be able to make rules about their content. Just for kicks, I decided to play by their rules. I decided I'd try to post something from the AP here on my blog and jumped through their hoops. I was given the choice of publishing the link or the article in it's entirety. The article is below.

The disadvantage? Most of the time, I don't really want to use an entire article in my post; I only want to make a point with a quote or excerpt, like in a research paper. As long as I credit the author, I feel I should be able to do so without being accused of copyright infringement. I suppose that one could paraphrase and then supply a link to the original article....

Microsoft, Google back broad privacy legislation from Associated Press