New York Times Sued Over URL Linking 74
Davros writes "GateHouse Media, which publishes more than 100 papers in Massachusetts, accuses the Times of violating copyright by allowing its Boston Globe online unit to copy verbatim the headlines and first sentences from articles published on sites owned by GateHouse."
Fuzzy laws and common sense (Score:5, Interesting)
The problem with the "fair Use" doctrine of copyright it requires and assumes parties to be reasonable and conscionable. Once either party behaves unreasonably or unconscionably, it ends up in court.
The worst part it is a type of legal situation that can't be defined easily. It must be vague to be flexible enough for there to be "fair use" of material.
Since the media companies HATE everything about fair use (except when it applies to their actions, i.e. HIPHOP sampling and so on) they constantly try to whittle away at it with precedent, using egregious cases that are far more reaching than the judges suspect before they make their rulings.
Unfortunately, lawyers, like all corrosive elements, feed of decay and destruction. Even the "good" ones make a living off the evils, yes by fighting it, but still by engaging it.
We need to find a new way to deal with injustice. The courts belong to big business and the unreasonable. Most people never seriously do anything to harm another, yet the courts are making precedent on the exceptions and that is destroying freedom bit by bit.
RSS = Copyright Violation? (Score:5, Interesting)
hypocrites (Score:5, Interesting)
I work for the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle newspaper, and a Gatehouse site, The Batavian [thebatavian.com], uses our headlines in their sidebar.
This is a boneheaded, hypocritical move by a desperate company - their market cap has dropped to about $2 million.
Re:No wonder media companies go under (Score:1, Interesting)
Christian Science Monitor starts in April 2009 (daily edition only). See here:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1029/p25s01-usgn.html