Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Jay Gatsby]

I am considering starting a website similar to drudgereport or realclearpolitics.  However, the difference is that rather than updating every day, I want the articles to be searchable by author, topic, source, etc., long after they are originally published.

drudge and realclearpolitics both have use hotlinks.  The problem with this approach is that once the host website removes the article, the hotlink is useless.

If I were to copy articles, with all the appropriate citations and credits, and make this available together with the original web address, would I be violating copyrights?

FYI, I am planning on making this a non-commercial, purely academic endeavor.  Is it of any legal significance that I will not be making money off this?

[Zonath]

Well as a starting point, it would probably be prima facie copyright infringement to do what you propose.  As a general rule, you can't legally copy someone else's copyrightable material without their permission.

Secondly, while the commercial or non-commercial nature of your use would probably be a factor if you were to assert a fair use defense to a lawsuit for infringement, it is far from the only factor, and the mere fact that your use was non-commercial would probably not be sufficient to carry the defense.  Additionally, fair use is a relatively fact-specific defense, and can be both expensive and difficult to prove in court.

Anyhow, if you were to pursue something like this, I would recommend finding out what you need to do to arrange to get permission from whatever sources you plan to copy.