Honky-Tonk Archive

Adrian Wulff · Post by **Adrian Wulff** » 1 Mar 2004 3:08 pm

I'm always searching for articles and interviews about my favorite country musicians. What would the legal issues be regarding reprinting articles that have appreared in newspapers or magazines onto a personal website that you don't charge for. Aside from needing to site the source, do you need to get permission from each source/author?

Thanks,
Adrian

Cal Sharp · Post by **Cal Sharp** » 1 Mar 2004 3:45 pm

I've posted other people's stuff on my site and never had a problem. I tried to get their permission via email, but they never replied, so I just put it up. I've had a few emails asking if it was cool to use some of my published stuff and I said sure. One guy was translating "Cold Hamburgers" into Japanese.

C# www.calsharp.com/music

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 1 Mar 2004 7:15 pm

To avoid problems, you should get permission. Some distributing of portions of works may be done under what's called "fair-use provisions", but even if you're not getting any monetary gain, you could still be in violation. (After all,you're publishing, for free, a work the author might be able to sell to someone else.) Just crediting the source or author doesn't make it alright, either! In a court of law, you might be asked why you used the material, and the answer "just to make my web-site more interesting" might not get you very far.

So, if you still feel you must do this (use other people's material for your website), I'd advise you to copy only very small portions of any work or article if you don't have the author's permission. A sentence or two may generally be allowed, but a paragraph or more may not, depending on the length of the original article.

Dave Van Allen · Post by **Dave Van Allen** » 1 Mar 2004 7:31 pm

I think the ideal is to post a link to the URL of the existing article from your page, not copying their text... that way you are referring your readers to the original source,not copying[This message was edited by Dave Van Allen on 02 March 2004 at 11:13 AM.]

Cal Sharp · Post by **Cal Sharp** » 1 Mar 2004 9:44 pm

And here's an excerpt.
Hope the guy doesn't sue me.

[This message was edited by Cal Sharp on 01 March 2004 at 10:01 PM.]

Walter Stettner · Post by **Walter Stettner** » 3 Mar 2004 1:39 pm

I don't know much about the legal issue of reprinting, but for reading and finding tons of stuff, try
www.hillbilly-music.com

This site has tons of news, articles etc., mostly about older artists, but also lots of reprints from newsapapers, magazines etc.

Check it out!

Kind Regards, walter
www.austriansteelguitar.at.tf

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Adrian Wulff · Post by **Adrian Wulff** » 3 Mar 2004 1:54 pm

Thanks for the site Walter, I've contacted them about doing interviews and research for their website.

Adrian Wulff

Ray Minich · Post by **Ray Minich** » 3 Mar 2004 3:35 pm

BE VERY CAREFUL!!!

The Digital Millenium Copyright Act has given rights holders a whole new spectrum of money pits to dig in. You usually don't know you've done something wrong until it's too late to prevent legal damages. This is now a legal minefield. Read the Sunday NYTimes magazine section from several weeks ago for a horror story.