Leading-Edge Law: In blogging, what is fair use of a news article?

When you blog, how much of a news article can you reproduce without becoming a copyright infringer?

And, if you reproduce too much, what legal consequences might you face?

Let's take the second question first. You might have the view that, if you reproduce too much, you'll just take it down if someone complains.

That might not work.

Under copyright law, sometimes the owner of a copyrighted work can recover up to $150,000 for each article copied. An aggressive copyright owner might not be willing to let you off the hook without a payment.

Because their product largely is news reporting, newspapers and news organizations may be tempted to sue bloggers who repost too much of their stories.

One media company already is trying to enforce its copyright.

Stephens Media LLC, which owns dozens of newspapers in 10 states, including the Las Vegas Review-Journal, has formed a partnership with Righthaven to sue bloggers who, in its view, borrow too much content. "It is our primary hope that Righthaven will stop people from stealing our stuff," the president and CEO of Stephens Media wrote in a column.

Dozens of lawsuits have been filed, but Righthaven recently suffered some legal setbacks in court.

I am not aware of other media companies making a business of suing bloggers. Yet, this could change because newspapers want to protect its content.

Borrowing too much from news stories can occur in two places on a blog.

The blogger might post too much. Many bloggers reproduce large sections of news stories out of laziness — because they don't take the time to paraphrase what the article said.

Also, if you leave comments open on your blog, commenters might post too much.

What legally is at issue is "fair use."

Federal copyright law sometimes permits you to reproduce part or, in rare cases, all of someone's copyright property. For example, some copying usually is permitted for criticism or commentary of what you reproduce.

Even if your blogging purpose for reproducing all or part of a news article is criticism or commentary, whether your use of a news article is fair use depends upon a multifactor analysis.

This analysis is subjective, so some situations are tough calls.

Nevertheless, here are some tips:

•Plagiarism and copyright infringement are different things. Even if you give credit to the source, either you need permission to reproduce or you need to be in the fair-use zone.

•It's good netiquette to link to the article from which you borrow and to name your source. Giving credit isn't part of the fair-use analysis, but doing so may make your behavior look benevolent, which may help.

•Linking to a news story in a blog post without reproducing any of the article in the post is not a copyright problem.

•Getting permission from the newspaper or news organization to reproduce its article avoids any copyright infringement problem. Getting permission may be difficult, however.

•When possible, paraphrase the news article instead of block quoting from it. Copyright does not generally protect facts or ideas, but only the expression of them. Thus, if you can relate the same facts or ideas by paraphrasing, usually you have not engaged in copyright infringement.

•If you must block quote from the news article, quote only so much as is necessary to make your point.

•Try to make a transformative use of what ever you block quote. In other words, don't block quote just to relate the information in that quote, but do so for the purpose of criticism or commentary, or if you must show the exact wording of an article to make your point.

•If you will be leaving the ability to comment open on your blog, you should register your copyright-notices agent with the U.S. Copyright Office. You also will need to post information on your blog about how to contact this agent with any complaints about copyright infringement. You can learn more about this at www.copyright.gov/onlinesp.

Happy blogging.