BNN Broadcast

Blogs and fair use

After one of BNN’s perpetual controversies flares up the rallying cry usually boils down to a claim of copyright infringement. BNN explains that 50 word excerpts and reduced-size pictures used for the purpose of linking back to the originating blog post is clearly fair use. The offended blogger scoffs.

Fair use is complicated stuff, so varied opinions are natural. The problem is that it is profoundly against the self interest of blogs and the blogosphere to argue for a narrow definition of fair use. The blogosphere depends on an expansive definition of fair use. Read your favorite news blogs and you’ll invariably start to find 50, 100, 200 word excerpts and larger from copyrighted newspaper and magazine articles as well as from other bloggers who have exactly the same copyright protections as the largest corporations. Seen a reprinted editorial cartoon in the blogosphere lately?

If BNN’s 50 word excerpts are illegal, then much of what the blogosphere does is vulnerable to lawsuits. Indeed, earlier this year, the Associated Press launched and then aborted an attempt to squash fair use in the blogosphere. The opening salvo was a cease-and-desist letter sent to The Drudge Retort demanding that the site take down seven posts with excerpts of AP articles from 30-80 words long.

Bloggers from across the political spectrum, including Rogers Cadenhead of The Drudge Retort, raised the flag of fair use and blasted the AP for infringing on the rights of bloggers.

And rightly so. Digital culture in video, pictures, audio and text depends on the ability to take apart and recombine copyrighted works in new ways. Fair use is fundamental to the utility of Google and the community of Digg.

Once you accept the fact that bloggers need strong fair use rights, it is hard to do anything but accept the fact that BlogNetNews practices fair use well within the bounds that are common among bloggers.

A view from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.