Lifting content from websites

[sportshack06]

[Edited for thread title]

Seeing the threads on plagarism, I thought I'd bring up this unique and strange situation.

We get a copy of the Podunk Press here at our office....They always take articles from the local university's website, Ok - being they are press releases; but considering the AP copy is usually better for print purposes....its questionable.

But...since baseball season began, they've been running articles off of the semi-local (4 hours away) teams MLB.com site. They credit MLB.com and the writer.

Today, I open an edition of their rag, and they had a story with the byline Andy Katz off of ESPN.com

How long until this paper gets hit with a big shirt storm over this?

 

[chazp]

Re: Simply amazing

As soon as an ESPN staffer reads your post.

 

[joe_schmoe]

Re: Simply amazing

This is some stuff that I think will be tested real soon in courts...plagarism with Web articles, not specifically this paper. Of course, we don't know for sure that this particular paper didn't get permission to use the stuff, but I guess that's a safe assumption.

Would MLB and/or ESPN even bother to pursue action? Other than a Cease and Desist letter, court legal action againnst the rag probably wouldn't be worht the trouble unless it becomes a habitual issue. The big legal question would probably be the commercial value of the material. ESPN and MLB are both branded names but what's te commercial value of this material and/or what's the commercial loss? Yes, copying it is illegal either way but a purstuit of monetary rewards could well prove fruitless by the fact that the material copied seems to be free web copy. So while yes, it's copyright material it has little, if any, commercial value.

Still, the paper shouldn't be doing this without permission.

 

[Ace]

Re: Simply amazing


I don't understand the MLB.com thing. I know that MLB.com has game stories on virtually every minor league team, but they are basically written of boxes and stuff.

Can't most papers just take the box and the information and do their own? Geez.

And with Andy Katz? I dunno. I'm floored. At least they credited him.

 

[SF_Express]

Re: Simply amazing

One website linking to another with full attribution: Good.

One newspaper transcribing a web story and putting it in their print edition without a deal to do so: Very bad.

 

[TyWebb]

[Edited for thread title]
How long until this paper gets hit with a big shirt storm over this?

Judging from similar experiences I've had, don't hold your breath. If this were a big paper you were talking about, there would be some action, but I don't think many people are going to waste time going after a small-town rag.

At my first paper, a weekly, had a free, mass-mailed POS as competition. They consistently lifted not only quotes, but pictures and graphics from Web sites. Like a nice competitor, we made the Web sites aware. Nothing ever happened. They kept using them, without attribution.