Well, the 4th of July for this year is behind us…celebrating America’s 233rd birthday has been great but now it’s back to work!
A follow up of sorts to previous posts on the matter – conservative jurist Richard Posner of the seventh circuit court of appeals is proposing a ban on linking to online content without permission.
Not only would this action have dire consequences in the SEO copywriting world, it would dramatically change long-standing rules of fair use. As you may know, fair use allows for the reproduction of short excerpts of copyrighted material for the purpose of commentary, reporting, etc.
Alas, what we do daily here at the SEO-e blog.
Posner has a reputation of being a brilliant and provocative thinker, characterized as “the most mercilessly seditious legal theorist of his generation” by a 2001 New Yorker profile. His 2003 landmark decision in the case McKevitt v. Pallasch stripped first amendment protections for journalists from having to reveal confidential sources.
Consequence of this decision was made quite public in 2005 when New York Times reporter Judith Miller was jailed for 85 days for not revealing her source in the infamous CIA leak case.
In terms of copyright, Posner seems to be willfully ignorant to how bloggers actually drive traffic to original source sites like AP and Reuters, resulting in more eyes seeing their content and advertising. In a 2005 essay, he wrote “the bloggers are parasitical on the conventional media”.
Fortunately, Posner cannot enact his views through the bench – amending the Copyright law requires an act of Congress along with President Obama’s signature.
But traditional newspaper outlets across the country are beating their chests loudly to get something passed. And when something affects corporate interests in terms of copyrights, Congress has been known to act with great alarm.
We’ll continue to monitor the situation here at the search engine optimization e-blog. Stay in the loop on any legislative proposals here and if necessary, be prepared to call your congressman to keep the Internet open and “free” – a familiar theme from this past weekend’s festivities.