Our Copyright Policy
Given all the buzz lately over the Associated Press’ crackdown on blogs’ excerpting of its stories, it seems like a good time to flag ProPublica’s copyright policy. As you can see at the bottom of the page, we have begun operating under a Creative Commons license.
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5 comments
Ben Welsh
June 17, 2008, 5:42 p.m.
That’s good to know, but I’m not sure I totally understand how the CC license would apply to other blogs. I’m a long way from a copyright lawyer, so please correct me where I’m mistaken. I see that your license is only for “non commercial” use and I think that might mean your content is offlimits to any blog that profits from display advertisements. Then I see it does not allow for “derivatives” and I wonder how that line is drawn. Would excerpting your material as part of a larger post elsewhere count as the creation of derivative work?
Robert Zimmerman
June 18, 2008, 5:54 a.m.
Why doesn’t ProPublica want me to see what’s in the left sidebar? I’d like to read what’s going on over there but for some reason, I can’t.
Help a brother out.
Scott Klein
ProPublica
June 18, 2008, 9:19 a.m.
Robert: The left-hand side of the site can get obscured if your browser window isn’t opened wide enough. We’re working on fixing this, but in the meantime, if you open your browser window wider, you should see the left nav.
Richard Tofel
ProPublica
June 18, 2008, 9:47 a.m.
Ben, Our view is that the CC license would permit you to post one of our stories on a blog that sells ads, but not to sell ads specially targeted or linked to our material, or, for instance, a sponsorship of our material—that is, not to commercialize our work. Hope that distinction is clear. The language on “derivatives” means that we’re only granting rights to post stories in full (or to link to them). If you want to excerpt, you’d need to be within your “fair use” rights.
Laszlo Xalieri
June 18, 2008, 11:24 a.m.
It’s nice to see that some media sites notice that Fair Use is always allowed. This one in particular. It would be nice if AP noticed that.
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