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Category: Business Help

News Content

Hey everyone. I run a small aviation website, and have a question for you all. On my front page, there is the "latest news" section where i put news stories about aviation. Some are press releases from some of the big companies (Cessna, Bombardier, Boeing, etc..), and others I get from news sites (news papers, CNN, etc..). , then rewrite them adding facts, taking things away, and changing it around. .Before i go live with this site, i was wondering what i am allowed to use in these stories. For example, when a press release comes out, am i allowed to put the whole release, in its entirety on the site? Also, if i get a news story from a news site, am i allowed to use that story, but put it into a different form (i.e. paraphrase it, add other facts that i already knew, and things like that)? I just want to make sure that i am not doing illegal before i make my site live. If i am not allowed to do that, are there any ways around this, or sources to get news from? Thanks for any advice, or tips on how to do news storys!! :D

Well, this would be up to the individual owner of the content. But
you can't just take someones work and then change some things
and call it your own. Nor could you call it theirs because the works
have been altered.

I would contact the individual owners of the sites that you got the
data from, and tell them your intentions (that you will be altering it).

Thanks for the reply! That ould be a hassle to contact the sites because i search a LOT of them (i often use the google news search to find the news), but i guess thee is no other way around that, correct? Also, does the same apply for press releases? Thanks again!!! :)

I work a little with press releases (mind you, I'm not a legal worker of any type), and generally press releases are presented to be put out... So if you post them exactly (including appropriate author documentation) I would imagine you are okay.

As for material from sites such as cnn.com and the like. A few years ago I found an article about referees from cnnsi.com that I wanted to post on my site (was only a link). I contacted them about copyright issues and basically was told
1) They don't have e-mail
2) They don't have phones
3) They don't have faxes
4) Please mail your inquiery to XYZ and wait for a response (the cnn web-staff did not have any authority over copyrights and reproduction).

To make a long story short, you will probably be safe in that instance if you paraphrase, make it explicit (e.g. "To Summarize this news story"), and provide a link to the actual story, it seems like that would be safe. If you're already summarizing how much more work is adding a link?

But to add again, I don't have any legal training, just a little bit of antedoctal experience.

Thanks for the info! I kinkd of figured about the press releseas, but i wanted to make sure. Also, from now on i will make a link to the site that i got the story from, and if they contact me, i will remove the story immediatly, if that is what they want. I dont think that they would mind to much though as it is just a relatively small site. Any other thoughts on this matter? Thanks a million!!! :D