Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with blog and copyright

Will I get in trouble for posting mp3s to my blog?

hagelslaag — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 21:33:22 -0800

i am (surprise surprise) into blogs. and before i was into blogs, i was into music. now i like to post mp3s to my blog. is it a bad idea to label which song/artist it is -- as in, are there really crazy music coppers who will show up on my doorstep to arrest me? my blog's host is tumblr, which makes it easy to share an mp3 a day. should i just forgo labelling which songs i post? or is it pointless to even worry about this at all? i have no idea how intense lawyers are these days about persuing folks who share tunes online, and i don't want to get sued just 'cause i want to spread my love for joe meek.

Using other people's pictures in blogs

like_neon — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:58:05 -0800

Related to this question, but beyond Flickr: where it's just random product images, can I or can't I re-host their image with proper credit and a link? So there are loads and loads of blogs out there that are all about finding *stuff*. They can be handmade stuff, they can be mainstream designer stuff. They usually have a picture of the item (not hotlinked) and a link to the source.

Is this legally OK?

The Flickr question advises that the blogger contact the person who took the picture. But jeez, what if you are posting pictures of things from Nordstroms? Amazon? Nike? What's a blogger to do?

Stolen blog posts

foxinthesnow — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:08:10 -0800

Is anyone familiar with photomaniacal.com? They are taking posts from my friend's blog and seemingly posting them as their own, with no credit and no permission. We cannot find contact information. What can we do?

Illegal poetry

howiamdifferent — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 09:07:07 -0800

Can translating literary works over the internet get me arrested? Say I want to start a blog where I translate selected poems, short stories, and small extracts from novels from English into another language where no translation of said works exist. Am I doing something illegal?

What if translated version(s) of a piece do exist in that language, can I re-translate parts of it and post them?

Blogging Protection and Copyright

Gideon — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 10:36:58 -0800

My blog is beginning to be somewhat successful, and after finding my content in various places without attribution I'm a little nervous. I'm using Wordpress, hosted somewhere else... What sort of steps should I be taking to protect my content? I've certainly no problem with people quoting a bit, etc. but I take a dim view of someone reposting an entire article with new ads, etc. I'm aware that a lot of sites simply steal and make use of your feeds - anyway to stop that short of not having full feeds? Also, what sort of copyright notice should I be employing that both protects me and separates me from any comments people may make? Thanks!

Fair Use: Embedded video in quotation form?

Quarter Pincher — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 06:47:45 -0800

Fair Use Filter -- I want to take clips from movies and embed them in an online essay as quotation-style references. I want to write an essay to be posted online, using clips from major motion picture studios as references in a kind of quotation form, using YouTube/Metacafe/etc as the embedded bandwidth supplier for the clips. They are only pieces of scenes of movies, and used in context with a running commentary of a particular theme other than what the movies themselves are about, giving full credit of the original producers, etc, and not making any money off their reproduction (no advertisments at all).

Is this fair use?

Help me be a not-jerk

serazin — Sat, 12 May 2007 22:20:34 -0800

Blogfilter: What is the etiquette about using photos found on other people's sites? I'm starting a blog, and I'm trying to figure out how to handle photos. Note that I have no ads on my site, and don't intend to make any money from my blog.

My blog is about the history of my hometown. Would it be rude to use photos from other sites that deal with the history of my town? I'm talking about old photos. The sites I'm thinking of don't necessarily explain where they got their photos, they are unlikely to own copyrights (if copyrights even exist) to the photos. Probably, the images are scanned from books and old newspapers and such.

I wouldn't want to use a lot of their photos, just a few, now and then. I'd be doing my own scanning at the local library and so forth when I can, and using my own photos as well.

Also, the local museum has a large online collection. Their terms of use state that nothing should be reproduced for profit. I thought about just asking them outright if I can use the photos, but I don't necessarily want to draw their attention to me if they can't officially legally say 'go for it'.

Please note - my intent is not to post a "hope me break the law" question. If you just think that what I'm doing is outright illegal, go ahead and tell me. I am also not trying to screw anyone over. I'm actually trying to just respect the community of people out there who share my love for local history, and at the same time, try to save a little time so that I don't have to hand-scan every single historical image I want to post.

PS - I know that hotlinking is bad.

Copyrights on a deleted blog post

pineapple — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 11:48:04 -0800

What's the copyright and reprint status of the original content of a blog post that has since been deleted? I'm considering both the legal implications and the ethical concerns, plus don't know how much "fair use" applies in a commercial case. Bob Q. Techauthority updates a weekly blog for an American tech publication. He specializes in writing about widgets and various widget producers.

Last week he posts about ModeratelyBigPlayerCompany's exploration of a new execution of widget, and whether it will ever take off in a very monopolized widget market.

In the post, there are a few paragraphs of generic industry commentary, in the vein of "open markets are good," and then some specific content regarding MBPC's new product strategies.

My company is an affiliate of the widget industry; the more open the market, the better for us. Bob's anti-monopoly statements are positive for us, and I'd like to quote a couple of them for commercial use in some marketing material.

(By "a couple of comments," I mean just one or two sentences, not the whole post. By "marketing material" I mean, possibly on a website or white paper to help support a sales point, but definitely not printed on or in anything that would ultimately be a product for sale -- just your average ~~snake oil~~ ~~shill~~ collateral.)

Fast forward to today... when the post is gone. Bob reports on his blog that ModeratelyBigPlayerCompany contacted him, and said that the bits about their corporate strategies were proprietary and confidential, so he willingly removed them.

Bob did not say anything today wrt deleting the generic industry comments -- but they were merely part of the bigger story and would have been apropos of nothing without the context of MBPC's product.

Here are my specific questions:

1. If Bob had not removed the post, and all other things being equal, would I have been clear to use the two sentences without asking for reprint permission, under "fair use doctrine"? Public criticism on a general industry topic seems to make the answer a "yes" but I acknowledge that I might not understand fair use fully, especially vis-a-vis the "commercial" part.

2. Now that Bob has removed the post, am I ethically bound to not quote any of the material? I don't want to get anywhere near the bits about MBPC; I just want the "monopolies are bad, mmkay?" stuff.

Thanks in advance, and yes, I'll assume that YANAL. I just want to know what reasonable people think would be the Right Thing to Do, or if anyone has similar experience.

How far does fair use extend?

afx237vi — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 16:26:23 -0800

Copyright question about using sports photos in a blog... I have a small sports related blog in which I write about current sporting events. I would like to use up-to-date photos to illustrate my posts, but was wondering about the copyright implication of using photos from places like AFP or Reuters.

If I resize the photos to, say, 150 px, give the photo a © caption and use them for illustrative purposes, am I covered by fair use?

What about those headshots that are released for publicity and put on team websites? Can I use them?

What about logos of teams and sporting events?

Most of the blogs I read are crammed full of photos and I often wonder about whether they've a) paid a royalty, b) received permission, or c) just used them and hoped they don't get sued.

Up until now, I've always shied away from using images in my blog, just because I don't own any of the rights. For what it's worth, my blog is hosted in the UK and most of the sport I write about takes place in Europe.

Will blogging while writing my book create copyright problems?

jeffmshaw — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 16:52:14 -0800

I'm writing a book and keeping a blog along the way. I have a questions about copyright law in case I want to use text from the blog posts. While writing my book, I'm keeping a blog that's mostly observations, but also sort of conversations-with-myself as my research deepens. Undoubtedly, this will inform my writing.

What I'm wondering is, suppose I want to lift whole paragraphs or even a full post. Are there copyright problems with this? I've heard that publishing free online might undermine publisher interest because the publisher may not be able to copyright something that has been published online for free. Also, I wonder if the blog host will have any claim on what I write.

The blog is on Vox (URL in profile) if that matters. Though I appreciate all advice, I promise not to take it as legal counsel. Thanks!

Best strategies for defeating sploggers who are lifting my content.

IndigoSkye — Tue, 23 May 2006 10:08:46 -0800

I've had a couple smaller splogs that gave up after a period of time. However, one splog has persisted and, through volume, is showing up higher in searches than my original posts. What can I do? It's not the lifting of the content that I have problem with, I publish an RSS feed that others pick up with a credit link back to my blog. It's the wholesale reprinting of articles without even so much as a link back to my blog.

Besides ignoring them and hoping they'll go away, what are some good strategies for getting them to stop republishing my posts? Also what ways of contacting RSS aggregation sites (like Technorati) and asking them to drop the splog feeds have worked for you?

Someone I don't know has titled their blog with my name. What can I do?

armando — Fri, 11 Feb 2005 17:02:55 -0800

There's a guy out there on the web that has chosen to name his blog after me, Armando Bellmas. Instead of feeling flattered, I feel used. As a photographer my name is my business name, too, and I can't have this guy moving in on my turf. I don't know him nor have I given him permission to use my name. Plus, his blog is coming up in the top ten search results for my name at Google. He has not replied to any of my email inquiries and, short of calling an attorney for advice, I'm turning to you guys and the web for help. Thanks in advance.