Copyright Post

This is one of the remaining pre-launch entries to test functionality. It has been edited for content.

An excellent article has been posted on the Concurring Opinions blog, called What If Copyright Law Were Strongly Enforced in the Blogosphere? by Daniel J. Solove. In the feature, he ponders what would happen if the mainstream media outlets started really enforcing copyright to much of their content, and how it would effect blogging and bloggers.

In the article, he writes:

We bloggers have, to put it mildly, a very robust concept of fair use. Fair use of copyrighted material is a fuzzy concept, and judges use four factors to determine if a use is fair:

1. the purpose and character of your use
2. the nature of the copyrighted work
3. the amount and substantiality of the portion taken
4. the effect of the use upon the potential market

I think one of the key areas addressed is the substantaility factor. There seems to be some kind of pervasive myth that if you alter 10%, you’re safe from any copyright considerations.

This is an important point for people like myself, that must tread the tightrope between wanting to control the distribution of our work, yet still have it “out there” being seen. Bloggers have a nasty tendency to swipe en masse material from one blog to another, and sometimes with less than stellar crediting and attribution. This is an article very much worth the time to read.