More copyright complaints

Free Republic | April 8, 2004 | Jim Robinson

[Jim Robinson]

As most of you are aware, we've recently received several copyright complaints. In the last few weeks, we've received complaints from the SJ Mercury News, Independent (UK), SF Chronicle and The Boston Globe. Just a couple days ago the Post-Gazette send a cease and desist notice and yesterday I heard from the Tribune-Review.

Tonight, I got a call from Amy and there were two more registered letters at our PO Box. The McClatchy News (Sacramento Bee) and USAToday are now added to the list of publications that have complained about copyright violations.

Well, folks, the handwriting is on the wall. The complaints are now coming in faster than I can respond to them. John is currently in the process of writing programs to search out and automatically excerpt all existing threads from these sources.

I think we're gonna have to go to excerpt and link for all news sources very soon unless we have written permission on file.

[Indy Pendance]

This won't be too bad. Most articles are rehashes (is that a word?) of other articles. If we are digilent in our posting, we can post the new parts and link to other threads. Now, more than ever, it's critical everyone remembers to post the correct title. Is there a way John can add a 'link similar threads' function similar to a keyword function? It also might be prudent to enhance our search function by author, source or topic.

[Piranha]

I would be surprised if others are allowed to copy these articles. Websites still measure click-throughs as a basis for selling advertising, and lots of news media that post current articles for free charge for archival access.

Free Republic posters who do not excerpt (and I rarely, if ever, have excerpted articles in the past) may be depriving these news media of potential revenue.

Of course, there is another side; I have found many news sources that I regularly visit because I saw their articles posted on FR.

[Nita Nupress]

Just list the facts or points made by the article one by one and include a reference the source, title, author, date and include a link back to the source and they can't touch us.

And then threaten everyone with death if they click through the link to give them a 'hit.' :-)

[DoughtyOne]

This is the death knell of archived records that we all can access later on to make sure we have our facts straight. Only the media will control the news and the bits and pieces that they can trash us for, when we dispute them and get something a bit wrong.

The 'well informed' populace idea is fast becoming a thing of the past.

[NormsRevenge]

LOL... I know Amy,, It was my droll (Not troll) sense of humor.. trying to make light of the loss of one of my main sites for news on the Manure Ponds of StinkyMento

There are still hundreds of sites to go to.. You may need a bigger PO box soon tho at this rate. ;-)

[Imal]

Come what may, I'm just one of thousands of FReepers who will stand with you.

The Free Republic is much, much more important than most Americans will ever know, but many of us do indeed already know.

These are still just the early days, and beginnings are tender times.

Illegitimi non carborundum, dear friend.

[Mo1]

Nothing would terrorize the Left more than hundreds or thousands of bored, inquisitive FReepers with nothing to do but LexNex. :-)

Some of us were thinking about that Lexnex ..

[Chad Fairbanks]

Or, you could book bands that either:

A. Play originals, or...
B. Play originals, and they agree to pay any perormance fees if they cover tunes (and you have it in writing)

[Jim Robinson]

I haven't seen the latest two letters yet. I'll get them from Amy tomorrow when she comes to town. She told me over the phone that they were McClatchy (regarding the Sac Bee), and the USA Today. But like the LAT/WP, those two will probably explode out to a couple dozen or more publications. The handwriting is on the wall.

[Indy Pendance]

"Or we could add some money to the quarterly budget and buy a LexisNexis account and then distribute the password to everyone who pays their dues. (or something similar). FReepers would be able to dig out articles that have been yanked and then post a paragraph or two when it's relevant."

What an interesting idea! That needs to be explored more. Certainly there are many freepers that warrant this. For a fee, I'd be willing. Also, it might be time to start thinking about fees for some services, like freepmail....

[Jim Robinson]

It can be done, assuming you have enough talented folks to pull it off. I think we do.

[Reagan Man]

I don't know if their commie's. Most of them support freedom of speech. As long as its freedom of speech that advances and promotes their leftwing, liberal, socialist agenda.

And besides, FreeRepublic is a powerful force for conservatism on the internet. They can't allow FReepers to advance and promote freedom of speech that follows a conservative agenda.

[FairOpinion]

Well, they think they can shut us down that way, but they are wrong. And all this all of a sudden in a tough election year.

They can make us excerpt every article, or only post a link, but they can't keep us from discussing current events and posting our opinions.

They think that if we don't post the articles, people won't visit FR as much, but they are wrong about that too.

Life is tough, but we are tougher and we'll do everything we can, even double our efforts to get Bush reelected.

We'll dig up even more stuff about Kerry and Clinton and publicize Bush's successes.

That's what happens when you become successful. The reason they want to shut us down, is because FR is making a difference. You can really be proud of what you created, Jim.

[I got the rope]

Copyright Issues at FreeRepublic

have you seen this?

[Howlin]

Well, I have a CD writer and a great email program. I intend to save ALL the articles AND threads I read that I think I may *need* in the until this election is over.

[Piranha]

I think they are saying that linking is good, but cutting and pasting whole articles is bad. We can continue to link to anything we want to link to.

[Mo1]

I always liked it when they'd start sputtering...

That's my favorite part too :0)

[FairOpinion]

"Can an excerpt be something other than the first paragraph? "

I think you can excerpt any part of an article, but it has to be a small excerpt, I think posting half the article and calling it an excerpt would still get us into trouble.

[tpaine]

To: Jim Robinson

Chad Fairbanks wrote:
Or, alternativly, as FReepers respond to the posted, excerpted article, they could "quote" the next paragraph in the article, and eventually the whole article is posted anyway, just in bits and pieces.

______________________________________

That's an interesting idea
101 -Mo1-


______________________________________


First proposed back in '98 when the WP/LA Times lawsuit first hit..

Naturally, -- as the owner, JR cannot even hint that we individuals can play this sort of game.

But if we all did it, would we all be banned? -- Or more to the point, could we all be sued?