Linking to copyrighted material: Fair Use?

by Dan Cailler

According to a recent New York Times article, the Associated Press says it will start suing websites that use its content without paying for it. AP executives are concerned with engines like Google and Yahoo that link to sites which reproduce AP's articles whole or in part.

According to an article by Mike Masnick at Techdirt.com the AP said, "We can no longer stand by and watch others walk off with our work under misguided legal theories," to which Masnick questioned what these 'misguided theories' were and said that "search engines aggregating info and sending people to your site has been ruled fair use before"

The AP says this isn't about fair use, "its about a bigger economic issue at stake." The real issue seems to be an old business model meeting head to head with a changing world of technology. But the AP isn't alone in its concerns:

In a related story at InfoWorld.com, the French news agency, Agence France Presse, is being removed from Google's news service. The AFP had filed a lawsuit against Google because of a copyright infringement due to the Google's inclusion of AFP stories and content in its Google News. Having won, AFP's content is being removed, but many think separating itself from such a powerful search engine will only hurt it in the long run.

• Is Google's usage of, and linking to, stories produced by the AP and AFP fair use? Which of the 4 tests for fair use would hurt or help Google's case?
• Is it reasonable for services like the AP or AFP to submit stories on the web and expect people to not link and share that information, or to expect people to pay for it when someone, somewhere will always be passing it along for free?

Fixing FOIA

By Leigh Paynter

The Associated Press requests more documents than any other news agency in the United States. Recently, the AP has hit a hurdle in obtaining CIA documents on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy - and these documents were made available in their entirety two decades ago.

Since his first day in office, President Barack Obama promised to fix the hurdles in current Freedom of Information Act, telling government agencies to be prepared to open more filing cabinets.

The Associated Press reports on itself on Yahoo!News that it couldn't be more delighted. It files hundreds of requests for federal and state documents each year. Here are some of the ways The AP has used government documents to inform the public:

© 2003 The Associated Press (Photo:Diane Bondareff)

The AP reported on Hillary Clinton’s affairs and actions with businesses who later contributed to her husband’s charity while she was senator from documents it made public and later became key issues in Clinton’s secretary of state confirmation hearing.













© 2007 The Associated Press (Photo:Chris Miller)

The AP was the first to reveal that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin spent state money on trips with her children that were not for official business. Palin had to reimburse Alaska $10,000.










© 2007 The Associated Press (Photo: John Bazemore)

And the AP uncovered documents that showed the Federal Food and Drug Administration had concerns over the Georgia peanut processing plant that started the salmonella outbreak for nearly four years.

But sometimes the AP is less successful in obtaining documents and records.












© 1973 The Associated Press, © 1962 Portrait The Associated Press

The AP recently requested copies from the CIA’s 1960’s documents about then-congressman, Gerald Ford’s investigation into President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.











© 1975 The Associated Press (Photo: Charles Tasnadi)

The CIA is refusing to disclose the full memo written by FBI senior official Cartha DeLoach, citing national security concerns.

But the uncensored 45 year-old memo was released to the public nearly two decades ago. In the uncensored version, Ford says he heard a CIA report that Lee Harvey Oswald was paid by the Cuban consulate in Mexico City to assassinate JFK. This has since been debunked by JFK scholars.

The Labor Department has since sent The AP a letter stating that it didn’t want to spend money making copies of records that might no longer be needed. The Labor Department shipped the letter by Federal Express for $10.50. A photocopy is 42 cents.

• Do the censoring of these documents by the CIA fall into a fair exemption to FOIA?
• Is the Labor Department's response to the AP justifiable?