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ezine articles & other article directories...

by sb06
8 replies
From what I've been reading here on the WF, I understand these sites are mainly used by publishers to use their content. So would it be okay to directly copy & paste part of an article to use in an email newsletter to my list with a link that says "to read the rest click here" and then link to the the full article on ezine?
#article #articles #directories #ezine
  • Profile picture of the author HansDavid
    The ethical way is to publish the whole article in your newsletter including the author's bio that has links to his/her website.
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  • Profile picture of the author kayfrank
    You must give credit to the author or its the same as stealing. Whether in email or on a website the same rules apply.
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  • Profile picture of the author GerardCoyne
    yes, a snippet, with author credits and a link to the full article should be fine. It is similar to the publishing of an RSS feed, which is a common practise, and you would even be going a step further by specifying the author.

    Good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by GerardCoyne View Post

    yes, a snippet, with author credits and a link to the full article should be fine.
    This is totally wrong, Gerard.

    Please don't just "guess" about factual, verifiable issues involving people's terms of service, when you're trying to offer people advice, here: anyone having their EZA account closed as a result, or having a DMCA site take-down notice served on their hosting company by an angry author, certainly won't be thanking you for it.

    It's much better and more helpful just to tell people to read the terms of service than it is to guess, and then get it wrong - that helps nobody.

    Originally Posted by sb06 View Post

    would it be okay to directly copy & paste part of an article to use in an email newsletter to my list with a link that says "to read the rest click here" and then link to the the full article on ezine?
    No - absolutely not.

    It's prohibited by Ezine Articles' terms of service.

    Like those of the other few article directories I've used (and whose terms of service I've therefore actually checked myself), they require the entire article to be syndicated. "Snippets" aren't allowed.

    There's nothing to stop you from trying to contact the author and asking to be added to their syndication list on the understanding that that's what you're going to do, as a private arrangement, and you might well get permission, that way ... but it's not ok to reproduce less than the whole article, from EZA. If I were the author, I must admit I'd be explaining to you why I, too, normally allow syndication only of the entire article, even privately, but there are certainly some authors who'll give permission along the lines that you're asking about.
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  • Profile picture of the author sb06
    Thanks Alexa!

    So just to clarify... it's only okay to use content from Ezine articles (& similar directories) for newsletter purposes as long as I copy the ENTIRE article.

    What about leaving proper citation? Can I just leave their name and the link back to the original article or do I HAVE to leave the link they cited in their source at the end of the article? (Reason being, one of the articles I wanted to use... the website the author cited at the end is a broken link and there is no valid site.... I don't want to leave a link to site that no longer exists in my newsletter) What would I do in a situation like this? Would the link back to the original article in this case be okay?

    Thanks!
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by sb06 View Post

      So just to clarify... it's only okay to use content from Ezine articles (& similar directories) for newsletter purposes as long as I copy the ENTIRE article.
      Including the resource-box, yes.

      Really, you should check the TOS of each directory, but whenever I have done, that's always been the deal.

      At EZA, there's also the fact that you're not supposed to take more than 25 articles per year for each of a maximum of 10 sites, but they've put that in the TOS to prevent anyone from taking the entire content and using it as their own article directory(!) so that they'd have a legal remedy if anyone tried that.

      Originally Posted by sb06 View Post

      Can I just leave their name and the link back to the original article or do I HAVE to leave the link they cited in their source at the end of the article?
      You have to leave their link. This is the gist of the deal on offer via an article directory: the author gets the link from the subsequent publisher, and the subsequent publisher gets the content from the author. (And the directory gets the AdSense (or equivalent) income from anyone who reads articles there and clicks on something).

      Originally Posted by sb06 View Post

      (Reason being, one of the articles I wanted to use... the website the author cited at the end is a broken link and there is no valid site.... I don't want to leave a link to site that no longer exists in my newsletter) What would I do in a situation like this? Would the link back to the original article in this case be okay?
      Hmmm, yes, I see the problem! Strictly speaking, that shouldn't be in EZA, and if they notice that the link's dead, they'll remove it from their database anyway. I don't know the answer to this. I do see that it's completely futile to republish a dead link (though strictly speaking nobody can criticise you if you do!). I can only suggest that you find a way to ask the author (if possible?). I think asking EZA is unlikely to be helpful, because they'll just remove the article! :p :rolleyes: :confused:
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  • Profile picture of the author sb06
    Thanks Alexa! I might just use a different article...

    And that's a real bummer about not being able to use snippets because I've found a few really great articles with good information I'd like to share but they were just TOO long for me to want to post the entire article in an email. :/ Is there anyway to share small snippets of content from anywhere on the web with quotes and proper citation? Or are we left with having to paraphrase everything we find we want to share and copying entire ezine articles?
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Originally Posted by sb06 View Post

      Thanks Alexa! I might just use a different article...

      And that's a real bummer about not being able to use snippets because I've found a few really great articles with good information I'd like to share but they were just TOO long for me to want to post the entire article in an email. :/ Is there anyway to share small snippets of content from anywhere on the web with quotes and proper citation? Or are we left with having to paraphrase everything we find we want to share and copying entire ezine articles?
      One way to do this within the TOS would be to archive the newsletter on your site, in a place accessible to the public. You could then use the email, with snippets, to tease the online version and link to the full newsletter.

      I used to do this regularly, and it worked pretty well.
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