VIC Copyright Infringement in a Blog?

[Khalifa Najar]

Hi there

I am creating a blog where I can post news and information in regards of certain topics that I found interesting. My intention is to write my opinion about some news that I find around when I am browsing the web.

But here is my question: if I create a link in my blog that direct you to the main news (maybe from a newspaper or another blog) would I been having a copyright infringement issue? or if i create a mirror in my blog where the news that I am commenting showed up, and if the reader want to know more about it can click on it so another window emerge re-directing that person to the main source (again newspaper or a blog), that would be a copyright infringement too?

I have been doing some research about this, and I found that if I use a picture, photo, image, voice record or video that would be a copyright infringement because I will be using material with out the authorisation from the person who created it.

I saw that Facebook, Twitter and other social platforms use e-mirrors or links in their post and it seems that nothing happens to them (in the legal way). Will I be safe if I do it too in my blog?

Thanks for your time of reading this post and sorry for my English, I am still learning!!

All the best

 

[John R]

Hi @Khalifa Najar
Copyright and blogs is an interesting topic.

if I create a link in my blog that direct you to the main news (maybe from a newspaper or another blog) would I been having a copyright infringement issue?

Linking is a relatively unclear/untested area of copyright law in Australia. That said, simply linking to another website generally does not raise any copyright infringement issue. An exception to this may exist where you were promoting links, such as pirate movie downloads, that encouraged copyright infringement.

if i create a mirror in my blog where the news that I am commenting showed up, and if the reader want to know more about it can click on it so another window emerge re-directing that person to the main source (again newspaper or a blog), that would be a copyright infringement too?

I'm unsure what you mean by "mirror"?

My only other suggestion is to make it easy for copyright owners to contact you (e.g. via email address listed on your blog's contact page) so that any potential copyright infringement complaints can be resolved in a timely manner.

Hope this helps. Please keep us updated with your progress.

 

[Khalifa Najar]

Hi John R,

First of all, thanks for answering and take your time to do so!

I have been searching for this kind of information and it is pretty unclear. The only sure thing is that if I use any material without the consent of the owner I can be charged by copyright infringement. Same case of promoting a link, as you mentioned before.

But there is nothing out there about using a link or window (sorry about the mirror thing, got confused). These are a little frame on the webpage where you can see a picture and a short phrase or sentence in regards of a news or information. This happens when you share something on Facebook and the real source is from another webpage, for example:

This is called a link-shared post (I think, still learning :s )

This is precisely the second question that I wanted it to ask in my first post - and not very clear too, my apologies again.

If I link any news, something like this will appear in my blog. The picture will be already a copyright infringement because I do not owned the picture and second, a little paragraph of that news will showed up. Both of these process I cannot control or changed because this process it's done automatically. Any recommendations will be more than appreciated it. I can invite the beers

Thanks again for your post, it's been very useful to keep moving on and not give up on this.

Cheers

 

[Khalifa Najar]

if anyone is interested, I found more info here: (but still not clear enough!)

Australian Copyright Council

There are some documents as well depending of the type of copyright. It's very good and interesting if you want to know some general info about this topic.

hope it's useful

cheers to everyone!

 

[John R]

Hi @Khalifa Najar
Yes, the Australian Copyright Council is a good resource for many copyright issues and even their Websites: Social Networks, Blogs & User-generated Media (G108v04) Info Sheet (PDF) advises that linking is an unclear area.

In relation to the "mirror" or embedded social media/social network links that you provided as an example, my understanding is that:

1. Per my earlier comment, simply linking to another website generally does not raise any copyright infringement issue. An exception to this may exist where you were promoting links, such as pirate movie downloads, that encouraged copyright infringement.
   
2. There is a potential risk that a blogger may be pursued for copyright infringement if they shared a social network link which included content (e.g. image or video) that was originally infringed by someone else. That said, this is only a potential risk because many copyright owners simply instruct the social network to directly remove the infringing content that is hosted by the social network without taking further action. See also: About Copyright | Facebook Help Center | Facebook

Hope this helps. All the best with your blog!

 

[WiserNow]

Have a look at boredpanda.com as an example. All their posts are based on someone else's material however they are just crediting the source.

 

[Tracy B]

Hi Khalifa,

Linking an article is not copyright infringement and is perfectly okay. If you wish to copy a snippet from that article, from experience, it is generally okay as long as you credit the source and best practice is to alert the author (or website) that you have referred to their article.

As for mirroring, this is quite a grey area for large companies like Facebook and Google (e.g. search snippets and short answer function which essentially takes a short snippet from other websites and reproduces them word for word in google's search page). For Facebook and Google, they will be governed under different laws to that of Australian websites/companies/authors and they may have partnerships with many large news sources that allows for reproduction in "mirrors" with the news source's approval. You will find (e.g. with Flipboard), that some articles are "mirrored" in the app and other articles are opened in their original source. This is because the app company would have partnerships with some article sources and not others. Given that Google is currently involved in a number of lawsuits about their search snippet and short answer function, I would say "mirroring" without the original source's consent is not exactly legal and you should probably stay away from this.

I am also aware of quite a few startups in Australia that have attempted to offer apps with a function to reproduce third party articles in their app (i.e. mirroring) and have run into legal trouble and had to change their business plan.

In short, I would not risk it.

 

[John R]

Hi @Tracy B,
What lawsuits do you know of that Google or Facebook are involved in that are related to the "mirroring" issue? I was only aware of the recent news about Google shutting down Google News in Spain to avoid a "publishing tax"? Google News says ‘adiós’ to Spain in row over publishing fees | World news | The Guardian