Five ways for bloggers to minimize risk in use of copyrighted materials

Vickie Pynchon summarizes the 5 ways to reduce risk in the use of copyrighted materials by bloggers and citizen journalists.

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.