You want to use content from a news article or television station's web site in your blog post - this could cover many things. For lawyers, news coverage about big victories in the courtroom usually means a desire to place that coverage on their bio page at the law firm's web site. The 21st Century's version of an Ego Wall.
However, as I've discussed here before on more than one occasion, if a lawyer pulls that story or that video and puts it on the firm's website willy-nilly, then copyright infringement may occur. Those media stories (including photos and videos and audio interviews) are all the copyrighted work of these media outlets and should be respected.
What to do? First things first, just ask. Call or email the media source (this is really easy if you have the contact information of the reporter who just did your interview) and ask permission. Alternatively, surf their site for words like "reprint" or "permission" and you will find things like this:
San Antonio Express News
Dallas Morning News
Houston Chronicle
The Associated Press.
Will you have to pay? Maybe. It's called a "licensing fee." Balance that cost against dealing with a cease and desist letter (if you get one, Righthaven never bothered) or a claim for copyright infringement by the media's IP litigators.
Showing posts with label Associated Press. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Associated Press. Show all posts
7/7/09
Lawyer Writer News Flash: AP May Not Believe in Fair Use - They Want Payment for Excerpts Over 4 Words Long
This has been up for awhile over at the Associated Press site, but I think most folk are either ignorant of this fee schedule, or they're just blatantly ignoring it.
Me, I think it's stupid. AP wants you to pay for ANY excerpt of any of their content that you use on your blog. That's right. Quote as little as FIVE (5) words, and AP wants you to pay them $12.50.
Are we being punked? No. Apparently the AP is serious. Stupid, but serious.
And rather than rant, I refer you to the article written by Derek Bambauer for the Harvard University blog, Info/Law.
They are so ... well, polite. They call it "overreaching."
Stupid, overreaching. Po-tay-to, Po-tah-to.
Me, I think it's stupid. AP wants you to pay for ANY excerpt of any of their content that you use on your blog. That's right. Quote as little as FIVE (5) words, and AP wants you to pay them $12.50.
Are we being punked? No. Apparently the AP is serious. Stupid, but serious.
And rather than rant, I refer you to the article written by Derek Bambauer for the Harvard University blog, Info/Law.
They are so ... well, polite. They call it "overreaching."
Stupid, overreaching. Po-tay-to, Po-tah-to.
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