I have a really dumb question

by Carl Hughes

Posted: 14 years ago 17 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

If you start a blog and say it is a review site for a particular type of product. Is there a potential issue if you use other peoples reviews IF you leave there byline etc intact??:confused:

#dumb #question

Sheryl Polomka 14 years ago

I guess you could use other people's reviews if you leave all their links intact, but why would you want to?
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- Paul Myers 14 years ago
  
  Get permission first. That solves any potential copyright problems, assuming they didn't swipe the review from someone else...
  
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- JRCarson 14 years ago
  
  I don't see a problem with using the review if you just make it clear where you got it from.
  The point of making your site is providing the visitor with the best possible experience when they look at your site, right? So why wouldn't you compile the best reviews, videos, etc that you can find so the visitor doesn't have to search all over the web to find evidence if the product is good or not. You've provided a one stop shop. That's my opinion why you would want to use other people's reviews. And all reviews don't have links in them!
  
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  Paul Myers 14 years ago
  
  JR,
  
  The problem is that using someone else's content without their permission is violating their copyright. The fact that you don't change their links, or you use their original author's credit and give attribution does not change that.
  
  If you doubt that, pose the question to any competent attorney.
  
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  CDarklock 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Paul Myers
  
  If you doubt that, pose the question to any competent attorney.
  
  I prefer incompetent attorneys. They're less expensive, and they tend to tell me I can do all KINDS of things that I was just sure would be illegal.
  
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  THK 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Paul Myers
  
  JR,
  
  The problem is that using someone else's content without their permission is violating their copyright.
  
  I don't think it is true for article directories as long as the TOS is followed.
  
  Tanvir
  
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  Paul Myers 14 years ago
  
  Tanvir,
  
  I don't think it is true for article directories as long as the TOS is followed.
  
  Posting to an article directory includes explicit permission for republishing under their guidelines. In that case, you've gotten their permission in advance.
  
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  Richnana 14 years ago
  
  Is there such a thing as a personal copyright. Isn't that a legal term that means someone has applied for and received a copyright for something specific. You can reprint articles, If they happen to include a review,then you should be okay. Where are you gathering the information.
  
  The status on line is that many people want their information reprinted, especially if you leave their personal info in tact.
  
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  Alexa Smith Banned 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Richnana
  
  Isn't that a legal term that means someone has applied for and received a copyright for something specific.
  
  No, it isn't that at all. That's a widespread misapprehension.
  
  Copyright exists in material as soon as it's been written. You don't have to "apply for" or "receive" anything at all to be the copyright owner. You just have to be able to show that you wrote it. There are various ways of doing that (one of which, indeed, may be "having applied for and received something") but that's about proving that you own the copyright, not about whether the copyright exists.
  
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Suzy 29 14 years ago

I would suggest getting their permission just to be safe. If they are ok with it, it shouldn't be a problem.
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RentItNow 14 years ago

As a non-fiction book writer, I had to provide my publisher written and signed forms for each photo or quote larger than a certain amount text block. This task alone would take me almost more time and grey hair than writing most of the book. I tended to use my own figures or photos!

A way around this is to look at the press release section of some companies and see what their TOS are. They may let you do it as long as they are credited.

If you want a few more gray hairs, try to deal with a large corporations legal dept! Nintendo and Toshiba were the ones that almost killed me with frustration.
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Richnana 14 years ago

by the way, no question is a dumb question. It is dumb not to ask if you don't know.
...from an ex teacher.
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Carl Hughes 14 years ago

Thank you for all of the valuable input...Paul I have known you and trusted you in here for a long time. I think I will not run the legal risk...Sheryl as far as to why I would want to the answer is simply this...I want all kinds of reviews on the products for a more well rounded blog...Richnana and you are correct on your last post of course if you taught English go gentle on me lol
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Carl Hughes 14 years ago

Alexa that is correct I have (as do many others in here) copyright's on many works because of course like you said we wrote them
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- keith88 14 years ago
  
  I would suggest ask for permission first!
  
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dremora 14 years ago

If it's Amazon, they allow it. They have widgets that show product reviews.
For others, I would ask for permission first.
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DianeBrandt 14 years ago

There's nothing wrong with using other peoples reviews as long as you have their permission... being that they are the ones who wrote the review.
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