# Is it Illegal to Write a News Story Based on Someone Else's News Story? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 24, 2017, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-illegal-to-write-a-news-story-based-on-someone-elses-news-story/792039 "2017-07-24T16:23:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2017, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-illegal-to-write-a-news-story-based-on-someone-elses-news-story/792039/21 "2017-07-25T01:58:19Z")
How difficult would it be to add content yourself? I’m not a journalist but from my previous marketing experience, it seems that you could follow up with the subjects of the article to get more information concerning your specific field. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2017, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-illegal-to-write-a-news-story-based-on-someone-elses-news-story/792039/22 "2017-07-25T14:29:41Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#): > > How difficult would it be to add content yourself? I’m not a journalist but from my previous marketing experience, it seems that you could follow up with the subjects of the article to get more information concerning your specific field. Funny you mention that, because I believe we’re doing just that. I have a meeting about it scheduled later this week, but I think we’re going to end up bringing in a journalism kid (I’m from the marketing side) to write the news stories, which involves him doing more investigative reporting on the subject than we were doing previously. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2017, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-illegal-to-write-a-news-story-based-on-someone-elses-news-story/792039/23 "2017-07-25T14:50:14Z")
> [@Alley\_Dweller](#): > > [AP Defeats Online Aggregator That Rewrote Its News](https://www.wired.com/2009/07/hot-news-doctrine-defeats-aggregator-site/) > The Supreme Court in its ruling in [International News Service v. Associated Press, 248 U.S. 215 (1918)](https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/248/215/case.html) created the tort of misappropriation. > > From the syllabus. > While everyone is citing general principles of copyright law in this thread, one should not overlook other principles. That case was nearly unique in its nature, that a competing organization was using the original’s products to profit by disseminating them to potential clients of the original. Even the dissenting justices were disturbed by the court’s finding because they saw no precedent for it. There are literally almost no points of similarity to Sir T-Cups’ internal newsletter. Thousands of similar newsletters and internal publications alert employees of news in their field by citing newspaper articles. No problems arise, because no problems should arise or are findable in law. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2017, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-illegal-to-write-a-news-story-based-on-someone-elses-news-story/792039/24 "2017-07-25T16:58:05Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Copyright law includes criminal acts and criminal penalties in the U.S. That’s not even the issue. Not everything illegal is criminal, and some things are civil infractions, but violations of copyright law can be illegal. > It certainly can be copying even if you’re copying from multiple sources. > Unless you are copying expression, they do not have a case, even if you do it 100 times. > > Sir T-Cups has it right. Your OP shows you know what to do and not to do. Copyright is not a worry here. Yes and no. On such nuances are rich lawyers created. Recently, due to problems with piracy of music, movies, etc. - the USA has criminalized more of the behavior when copying and redistributing copyright materials. (i.e a threshold of $1,000 damage) But essentially, copyright violation is a civil matter. If you copy verbatim, even from multiple sources and glom the pieces together, you are still copying and violating copyright. If you rewrite the story in your own words, no. However, if “rewrite in your own words” simply means substituting some words and rearranging some phrases, so the general article - sentence structure, paragraphs, etc. - are recognizably very similar, better have a lawyer on speed dial. But I assume that is what you mean by “copying expression”… ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2017, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-illegal-to-write-a-news-story-based-on-someone-elses-news-story/792039/25 "2017-07-25T17:45:00Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > If you copy verbatim, even from multiple sources and glom the pieces together, you are still copying and violating copyright. If you rewrite the story in your own words, no. However, if “rewrite in your own words” simply means substituting some words and rearranging some phrases, so the general article - sentence structure, paragraphs, etc. - are recognizably very similar, better have a lawyer on speed dial. But I assume that is what you mean by “copying expression”… Yes, that’s exactly what “copying expression means.” Rewriting means creating original expression. One is protected. The other isn’t. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-illegal-to-write-a-news-story-based-on-someone-elses-news-story/792039.md?page=1)