I explained LinkedIn is displaying blog posts from influential blogs in the customized news section on the home page of each LinkedIn user. The blog posts are coming via RSS/synidication and being displayed right along with news from the major news services and publications.

Better yet, the blog content displayed is tailored for the LinkedIn user. If you're publishing a law blog on a particular niche, the content is displayed for people in the relevant industry or who have expressed an interest in that niche based on the person's use of LinkedIn.

I'm also finding significant traffic coming to my blog from LinkedIn users. Last week, three of my blog posts were being run on LinkedIn and displayed for people in the legal, marketing, and PR/communications fields.

Note that I did not see my blog posts displayed at LinkedIn. I saw the referral traffic in my blog stats. I then saw my profile being viewed by people in the above fields. I have to believe it was folks in the legal and marketing fields who saw my blog posts displayed in their custom news.

Here's a screen shot of the news section that's displayed on the home page of each LinkedIn user. My company is LexBlog, thus the display of 'LexBlog. Inc. News.' Your news will be displayed under the name of your firm.

You'll see that there's a field in which you can submit a news story. I have not submitted any of my blog posts, they're being displayed at LinkedIn on their own.

If you're going to be submitting a blog post, make sure it's a good one. Abusing the process may actually hamper getting your blog posts syndicated to LinkedIn.

As more and more major sites display blog posts by syndication it's becoming more and more important for law firms to use blog software for the syndication of their content.

The use of others' copyrighted work under the fair use doctrine is how we bloggers survive. But there are limits to what fair use allows us to use.

Vickie culled this handy list from a primer at the Citizen Media Law Project Blog.

• Use only as much of the copyrighted work as is necessary to accomplish your purpose or convey your message.
• Use the work in such a way that it is clear that your purpose is commentary, news reporting, or criticism.
• Add something new or beneficial (don't just copy it -- improve it!).
• If your source is nonfiction, limit your copying to the facts and data.
• Seek out Creative Commons or other freely licensed works when such substitutions can be made and respect the attribution requests in those works.

Understand that copyright protection applies to all works created by others. Even to a blog post I may write on a bar napkin. I don't need to put a fancy 'c' on it or file any sort of registration. Same applies to newspaper stories or photos from flickr.

Don't get freaked out about liability. If it wasn't for the New York Times or Washington Post, I'm not sure CNN would have anything to report. You'll regularly see them scroll a paragraph or two as to what one of the papers is reporting. It will be followed with short commentary from an 'expert.'

Same goes for small town TV and radio stations who borrow liberally from the local newspaper. Think of yourself as a blogger reporting on events, writings, and the law while adding insight and commentary.

If you don't have Vickie in your RSS feeds, you may wish to add her. She's a prolific, insightful, and entertaining blogger at her own Settle It Now blog and the IP ADR Blog at which she's a co-author.