Dear DanX and john777,
Okay, I know you are really busy, and I'm just sitting around picking dingleberries, so I did a little footwork for you (it's called Google, an amazing thing!).
COPYING FOR WEBSITES & PUBLIC DISSEMINATION Los Angeles Times v. Free Republic, 54 U.S.P.Q.2D 1453 (C.D. Cal. 2000)
A bulletin board website allowed members to post full articles from newspapers in order to generate awareness and discussion of various subjects. Access to the site was unrestricted. The defendant was a for-profit corporation, but was in the process of seeking nonprofit tax status and did not charge for access to materials on its website.
Purpose: The articles were copied directly from the news sources and were not “transformative.” The judge was also not persuaded that a link to the news source would not be sufficient. While the court generally favored the claim of a “nonprofit” use, the court still found that posting the articles was drawing readers away from the commercial websites where the articles originated.
Nature: The articles are predominately factual, tipping the factor in favor of fair use.
Amount: The website included the full text of the articles, and the court found that the copying was more extensive than necessary to accomplish the defendant’s objectives.
Effect: The newspapers were seeking to exploit the market for the articles and draw traffic to their websites; the defendant was “usurping” the copyright owner’s potential markets.
Conclusion: The bulletin board’s use of the newspaper articles was deemed to not be fair use.
Read Full Opinion
If this doesn't enlighten, you should hire a lawyer, or at least do some searching yourselves, "The Truth Is Out There" (
Great, now FOX is probably going to be gunning for me).