Fair use allows the use of copyrighted materials to be republished in limited chunks, and in educational and other noncommercial environments in their entirety. Legal eagles are hoping that the lawsuit will set a precedent by which lawyers can base arguments about electronically copying articles from site to site. Other media companies may join the lawsuit, Heinke said. Add your comments to the bottom of this page. We're a political forum.
People post opinions and views, just like the framers of the Constitution.
But Heinrich, who represents the media companies, says the FreeRepublic's story posting and archiving diverts traffic from the news sites, and causes the newspapers to lose traffic, advertising revenue and archive traffic. Heinke said, referring to users purchasing archived articles after their original appearance. We're not talking about somebody who is quoting out of one article. We're talking about a Web site that on a consistent long-term basis is allowing its viewers to post entire articles and archiving them. They are a multibillion-dollar corporation.