Are Bloggers Parasites?

I read Judge Posner’s article entitled “Bad News” in the New York Times about media in general.  There’s a portion there where he discusses bloggers and the threat they pose to traditional media.  He also calls bloggers “parasites” for taking content from traditional media without paying for it. Then they have the temerity to criticize conventional media.  Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.

I’m guilty of this.  I link to media sources all the time.  I just did it now — to the New York Times, no less.  And I don’t pay them a centavo (assuming I knew what it looked like). 

But am I a ‘parasite’?  For that matter, fellow blogger, are you?

I thought about this for a while and I figured, I’m no more a parasite than any other columnist within conventional media.  Or for that matter, any other academic who lifts ideas from other people (with proper citation, of course).  There’s nothing wrong with that. 

Information is supposed to flow freely and bloggers who link back to their source are just being courteous.  To require bloggers to pay a royalty to cite news items in my view would be an impermissible burden upon the freedom of expression.  If democracy thrives because of the free exchange of ideas, then bloggers (particularly, political bloggers) should have the right to make use of news items for purposes of comment and criticism.  Intellectual property law recognizes this, calls its “fair use” and removes it from the exclusive rights granted to copyright owners. 

I will agree that Judge Posner has a point when it comes to blogs that do nothing but aggregate news items for commercial gain.  In that sense, maybe blogging can be parasitic. But that activity can be justified in that the “aggregator” is performing a valuable service namely sorting and collecting news media reports.  My point is that the “aggregator” is not without his defenses. 

As I write this, I realize I’ve fallen into a trap.  Judge Posner (a lawyer, PhD in Economics, and a giant in the Law and Economics field) must have used the term “parasite” to provoke a reaction from the blogosphere.  If he were addressing economists , he would use the term “free rider”  but that term just doesn’t resonate to mere mortals like us.

So, my fellow parasites, let us suck away at the lifeblood of conventional media!