I was intrigued by Liza Sabater’s contention in her blog post drop dead=fair use? that bloggers should have free access to news sources on the ground of fair use. I’d heard of this legal principle before but wanted to learn more. A good resource is the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Fair Use FAQs. One question in particular in the FAQs seems to apply to blogging:
What’s been recognized as fair use?
Courts have previously found that a use was fair where the use of the copyrighted work was socially beneficial. In particular, U.S. courts have recognized the following fair uses: criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, research and parodies.
