Blogging and Copyright

Janette Toral writes in her Sun Star column about blogging and copyright. She says:

An email is considered copyrighted by the person who sent it, once sent. Forwarding or publishing it without the consent of the person who wrote it is a violation of his copyright.

Does this mean I’ve violated the copyright to her column? The answer is no. But she isn’t entirely off the mark. Copyright law prohibits the “copying” of certain expressive works (text, music, lyrics, art, pictures, etc.). In the “cut and paste” world of blogs, one could say that massive copyright infringement is the norm.

However, copyright law is not absolute. It recognizes that the copying of material is necessary for activities that have societal value - such as criticism or dialogue. This forms part of what is known as “fair use” which permits the copying of copyrighted works only to the extent necessary to fulfill a legitimate (usually non-commercial) purpose and so long as the use does not affect the present (and potential) market for the work.

Publishing someone’s work without permission may violate that person’s privacy but that’s a separate issue. If you’re doing copying material in order to comment or analyze the statement made, it’s allowed under our copyright laws. Of course, it’s a good policy to copy only so much of the work that’s necessary. Note that I didn’t quote Janette’s entire column (but provided a link).

I must say that on the whole, I haven’t seen a blog that has committed copyright infringement (insofar as text is concerned). A blog, by its nature, is the blogger’s original work and any copied text is usually incidental to the blogger’s discussion of an issue and not intended to exploit the copied work for personal gain.