At what point do I link instead of quoting a printed article? I posted a few things recently that- I felt- required fairly lengthy quotes from my cited source.
Now, were I to enter into a spirited debate on Charles Dickens, I know enough not to cut and paste the entire text of “A Tale of Two Cities”.
Where’s the line?
Cartooniverse
In two very unhelpful words, “fair use.” You can quote what is essential to achieve one of the ends for which the fair use doctrine was devised, so long as you do not copy the entire content of the copyrighted article nor violate the terms under which it is held open for use.
I’ve seen material that suggests that the copying of a passage that is under 20% of a copyright article and less than 200 words is acceptable fair use, provided that the copyright holder has not placed more restrictive standards on it. But that could be egregiously overdoing it on some articles.
The only safe rule is, when in doubt, don’t copy; link. One or two short “teaser” sentences that make your point, and a link to the full article or story, should do the job in nearly every case.
I might also note that any AP story, including ones printed in newspapers that attribute their source as the AP, is pretty much off limits – they are, as things come to their attention, getting extremely nasty with website and message board owners about this. I’ve known a couple of other boards threatened with lawsuits in this regard. When they do authorize use, it’s a one line quote with a link and explicit credit. I strongly urge the staff to be pro-active on this, since none of us want to see the SDMB shut down thanks to a threatened suit from the AP against the Reader.
Actually, A Tale of Two Cities is in the public domain, and could be pasted whole into a thread without violating copyright. However, doing so would be impractical and would make for a very long post and is probably to be discouraged. 
Sheesh, don’t give him any ideas! 
Even if something is in the public domain, that doesn’t mean it 's okay to reproduce it in totality on the board. This should be just common sense, but I’ve learned common sense is not always so common (though you folks are right much more often than wrong, thanks be).
The ideal, as Polycarp said, is that you get enough of your cite across to give the flavor. They can always click on your link to check the veracity of what you’re saying, get more information, be entertained, etc.
When in doubt, ask before you post. We’d rather deal with it beforehand than have to edit or remove it after.
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
Why is it not acceptable to quote the entirety of something that is in the public domain (assuming it’s reasonably short)?
I think there’s a 20,000 character limit for an individual post.
I think TubaDiva’s point is just that - to keep things very reasonably short and to the point. Public domain or not, it’s not the purpose of the SDMB to serve as a huge storage medium for lengthy PD info. It fills up the database and makes the server have to work even harder to do Searches and sort through the gigabyte+ of data already in there.
Too late !!! 
Yes, I got that part. Although I was giggling by the time I read Una’s post. ( No offense to you of course, Una.) If there are people on the plante who would clog down servers by entering in the entire text of public domain novels, they should be sat down in a brightly lit room filled with sensible adults whose only concern is their best safety and welfare, and be beaten by their keyboards until they agree not to do such a lunatic thing again.
Polycarp has provided us with something rather sobering. For that tidbit alone, I’m glad I asked. I KNOW I’ve quoted articles from the AP that were more than a sentence in length. Eeeeech. If SDMB Admin can verify this policy, it might be worth a sticky at the head of every single Forum.
Any Doper attorney types who practice copyright law able to chime in definitively?
Public Proclamation: I, Cartooniverse, being of sound mind :dubious: and wrecked body, do hereby swear to TubaDiva that I shall never insert into a thread the remaining 365 pages of “A Tale of Two Cities”.
Now, where’s my copy of War and Peace?
Poly --Can you give any specifics on this? Specifically a reference to where AP authorized a “one line quote” with a link and specific credit. I never doubt you, as I admire your posts. But I’d dearly love to read about/investigate this further.
Some things need more than a cite. Sorry, Poly. I just spent about 20 minutes on the phone with the attorney who works AT THE A.P. His name and info will be forwarded to TubaDiva for further contact/clarification. This is the essence of his statements to me:
Furthermore, even in the context of discussion or debate, wholesale copy of an article would raise serious objection.
). There is concern that a hyperlink to say, an AP article within the NY Times, or Houston Chronicle, or Philly Inquirer would in of itself constitute unfair use because the link provides free access to the entire body of the article. He said hey, this is how the Internet works. If you link on your message board to the NY Times, and they - they - provide an Internet page where their contect is there for free, then we are legally being compensated by the NY Times for said content, and it is free to be linked to.Informative fellow. As I said, I will not provide his name or info here, but SDMB Admin will have it in a few moments. As far as I am concerned, and I’ve been a Doper since 1999, the Rules of the Road from the Reader more than cover the copyright and fair use issues raised in my thread.
Cartooniverse, U-Penn Law, Class of 2019 
Thanks, Cartooniverse. That A.P. thing was not intended as a scare, but rather the fact that a Suit from the A.P. had contacted Christian Forums (where I’m a non-staff member in good standing) with a threat of a lawsuit because their stories were being copied, in whole or in large part, into the News and Current Events discussion forum there. The one-line plus link and credit rule was what they insisted over there was the maximum usage they’d permit, as made very clear by staff on that board. The difference may be that the story cite was generally the OP there, where here it’s more apt to be brought in as evidence in the midst of an ongoing debate. But on any of this copyright infringement stuff, I feel it’s much better to be safe than sorry, so I raised it as a real concern here.
Given what you found out, I feel much more comfortable about the situation here now. But it might be worthwhile for you to provide Ed Zotti with the name of the guy you talked to and the gist of your conversation, to cover the Reader’s corporate behind.
I misstated and it’s important. My apologies. that should have read,
The copyrighted text is used within the context of analysis, debate or discussion and not as a source of revenue. Sorry to have misstated a key point of what that gentleman shared with me. ( I Previewed, to… :smack: )
If we can get Slug Signorino to render said corporate behind of The Chicago Reader, I’d say we have this year’s New Year’s Card !!
I forwarded the info to TubaDiva, who is apparently breathing a sigh of relief that I used only the first and last sentences of “Tale of Two Cities”.
Hell, that’s usually the best parts anyway.
http://www.christianforums.com/t732373-attn-nce-posters-rule-change-please-read-and-understand-.html
The above is the announcement of the policy agreement between CF and AP regarding use of AP stories there. I needn’t mention that CF staff took it very seriously. In the course of discussion, it appeared that they were doing this as “abuses” of AP material came to their attention; I don’t have links to that, as the threads arguing about it found their way to Those Mysterious Forums Not Available to Regular Members – you know, their equivalent of the ones where our everlovin’ Mods. are pouring Concrete around the feet of The Grapist
Also, just a reminder, that the CHICAGO READER (and therefore this Message Board) tends to be stricter than is legally necessary about copyrights and fair usage. It’s basically the Golden Rule: we don’t want READER articles or Cecil columns to be copied without compensation, and therefore we are more strict than we might need to be in not allowing our posters to copy the works of others.