This is the final posting summarizing questions I addressed during a recent panel discussion on Blogging Basics. See Part I and Part II for a discussion of other legal issues that interest bloggers.
Do I Need Permission to Use Other People’s Material on My Blog?
As a general rule, you should obtain permission before using another person’s material on your blog unless you determine there’s an applicable exception to needing permission such as one of the following:
- Use of Material in the Public Domain. Once a copyright expires, the work falls into the public domain and can be used without the copyright owner's permission. Listen to my one-minute explanation of determining whether material is in the public domain.
- Use Covered by the First Amendment. If the material is the only source of information and that information is vital to the public's understanding of certain events, the material can be used without the copyright owner's permission.
- Copyright Fair Use. The fair use exception to copyright protection allows you to use a reasonable portion of a copyrighted work without permission. There is no bright line rule in determining what qualifies as fair use. Read some examples of how the fair use doctrine is applied.
- Parody. A parody is a form of commentary that borrows liberally from the original work in order to make fun of it. In order to qualify as a parody, the work must be a commentary on the original author's work.
- Federal Government Works. United States government works created by federal government employees or commissioned as works made for hire are in the public domain. State and local government works may be protected by copyright.
Finding Trouble-Free Material for Your Blog.
When you want to incorporate outside creative material into your blog, consider the following sources:
- Content owners and social networking sites that allow you to embed video and other content into your blog.
- Material available under a Creative Commons License.
- Stock houses that license images, video, and music at inexpensive rates.
You can find extensive information on exceptions to needing permission and sources for trouble-free materials in my book, The Permission Seeker’s Guide Through the Legal Jungle.