Judge Posner: Against Hyperlinking and Paraphrasing

Richard Posner, a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago and a Senior Lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School, has just posted a blog entry, The Future of Newspapers, where he outlines the impact of our current economic situation on the newspaper industry. Although not directly related to art his post is crucial not only to blogs like Clancco and other art blogs, but also artist websites that hyperlink to newspaper and journal articles, directly or by paraphrasing an articles content. In his blog, Posner ends his entry by arguing that news service providers such as Reuters and the Associated Press should be able to bar access to their content if we believe in “professional, nongovernmental sources of news and opinion.”

Expanding copyright law to bar online access to copyrighted materials without the copyright holder’s consent, or to bar linking to or paraphrasing copyrighted materials without the copyright holder’s consent, might be necessary to keep free riding on content financed by online newspapers from so impairing the incentive to create costly news-gathering operations that news services like Reuters and the Associated Press would become the only professional, nongovernmental sources of news and opinion.

Against our own interests, we have to agree with Judge Posner. For an alternative viewpoint on Judge Posner’s arguments, see Techdirt’s Mike Masnick.

Tags: hyperlinking, paraphrasing, richard posner