Blog Question - Using Someone else's content

[Chirag]

Hi Warriors,

Just wanted to check if let's say for example you have a blog:

1) Can you use someone else's article (say for example taken from Ezine Articles) and put it on your blog but of course stating clearly that the article was written and contributed by that person?

2) Alternatively, can we use that same article but of course make a few prominent amendments to the articles itself and use it as yours.


I just wanted to run this by to avoid any copyright laws that may occur and wanted to know the best legal way of going about to do this.


Hope you guys can shed some light on this.

Thank you.


Cheers,
Chirag

[mscopeland]

I write about 50% of the articles on one of my websites. I look for Creative Commons licenses or if I like their blog post, I leave a comment asking if I could use it on mine.

You know what? I have NEVER been turned down.

Some CC licenses give you full rights to do whatever you want with the article, others require that you leave it intact. When in doubt, ask.

[spressnell]

Thanks for the info. I wondered the same thing since I'm new to all of this.

Shirley

[Paul Schlegel]

Originally Posted by Chirag

Hi Warriors,

Just wanted to check if let's say for example you have a blog:

1) Can you use someone else's article (say for example taken from Ezine Articles) and put it on your blog but of course stating clearly that the article was written and contributed by that person?

2) Alternatively, can we use that same article but of course make a few prominent amendments to the articles itself and use it as yours.


I just wanted to run this by to avoid any copyright laws that may occur and wanted to know the best legal way of going about to do this.


Hope you guys can shed some light on this.

Thank you.


Cheers,
Chirag

You just need to look for publisher terms. For example on Ezine articles you can read them here:

Ezine articles TOS for Publishers

[Michael Taylor]

Originally Posted by Chirag

2) Alternatively, can we use that same article but of course make a few prominent amendments to the articles itself and use it as yours.

Unless the article includes a license that allows rewriting, then no, you can't change it. Why? It doesn't belong to you. And this is true even if the article is freely reprintable.

One thing you can do, though, is write a commentary on an article.

Write an introduction of the topic and the article that ties into your topic. Cite the author, the title, etc. Then, simply quote sections of the article and comment on them.

In your commentary, you can get your own point across...the point you were wanting to make by rewriting the article in question. This method allows you to post content you didn't generate yourself, employs fair use, and produces a unique piece of content that avoids duplicate content problems.

This also gives you the benefits of story-telling. By tapping into someone else's article and interacting with the author's material, you're essentially creating a dialogue. People will want to see where your "story" goes and how it ends.

Pulling the other writer's words and ideas (properly attributed, of course) into your conversation with your reader is like alchemy...it creates something even more moving and powerful than a regular, flat article could.

Gary North frequently uses this technique when writing to his list.

[Chirag]

Cheers All and thanks for the input.

Michael, I really like the dmpage.com website.


Chirag

[Wendy Maki]

Simplest answer: Unless there is a specific and explicit statement to the contrary, always assume that you are not allowed to copy or use any writing that you find. There does not need to be any copyright notice for something written to be protected by copyright law.

So, always look for statements that explicitly give permission to do whatever it is you are looking to do, whether it is simply reprinting or going farther and rewriting.

For example, article directories should give specific reprint permission in their terms.

[Nick Doyle]

As a general rule fo thumb, the more UNIQUE the content on your site the more VALUE Google gives it.

But you can always take something you read somewhere, quote it and add your own 2 cents and thereby creating your unique content.

That always works and helps your SEO