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Ask HN: Legality of Republishing News (a la Google News)

1 points by johns 18y ago

We're working on a service that would benefit from displaying current news headlines and summaries along with other content, some of which is advertising (this is not for a web site, but I can't get into too many specifics). We've looked at every major news source's RSS feeds, but none of their terms of use allow for non-commercial use. One lawyer told us we had as much right to use the headlines and summaries as Google News does and that "non-commercial use" meant that we couldn't resell the content. I find this hard to believe. So my question is, where's the line for what we can freely use and what we can't? Does Google News get special treatment because of the traffic it drives?

wmf 18y ago
Fair use is an exception to copyright, so it still applies even if a feed says "you can't do anything with this data". I don't know whether fair use applies in your case. Google News certainly gets special treatment, but in the opposite way you intended: they've been sued by newspapers and newswires for behavior that appears totally legal to many observers. http://news.cnet.com/2100-1030_3-6174008.html http://news.cnet.com/2100-1030_3-6174008.html
nostrademons 18y ago
You'd take the word of random hackers on the Internet over that of your lawyer? Fair use is complicated, and depends on a lot of factors like: a.) how much of the original work you take b.) how much of your work this constitutes c.) commercial or non-commercial? d.) do you have a positive or negative impact on the original copyright holder's business? There likely isn't a "right" answer until you get sued and a jury decides one way or another. But I think it's highly likely that a lawyer you're paying for can give better advice than we can.
- johns 18y ago
  This is not the lawyer's area of specialty.
shafqat 18y ago
We use feeds at NewsCred. We've done a lot of research into fair use, and it all depends on the factors mentioned by nostrademons in the comment below. Really depends on what you are planning on doing with/around the news.I would suggest just going for it - if you get sued, you'll get the publicity!

1 points by johns 18y ago

wmf 18y ago

Fair use is an exception to copyright, so it still applies even if a feed says "you can't do anything with this data". I don't know whether fair use applies in your case. Google News certainly gets special treatment, but in the opposite way you intended: they've been sued by newspapers and newswires for behavior that appears totally legal to many observers. http://news.cnet.com/2100-1030_3-6174008.html http://news.cnet.com/2100-1030_3-6174008.html

nostrademons 18y ago

You'd take the word of random hackers on the Internet over that of your lawyer? Fair use is complicated, and depends on a lot of factors like: a.) how much of the original work you take b.) how much of your work this constitutes c.) commercial or non-commercial? d.) do you have a positive or negative impact on the original copyright holder's business? There likely isn't a "right" answer until you get sued and a jury decides one way or another. But I think it's highly likely that a lawyer you're paying for can give better advice than we can.

johns 18y ago
This is not the lawyer's area of specialty.

shafqat 18y ago

We use feeds at NewsCred. We've done a lot of research into fair use, and it all depends on the factors mentioned by nostrademons in the comment below. Really depends on what you are planning on doing with/around the news.I would suggest just going for it - if you get sued, you'll get the publicity!