Copyrighting Stupidity

The level of stupidity on the internet knows no bounds, but occasionally there are individuals that descend below even the typical train wreck mentality of the average internet user. And they usually start a blog.

Eventually the worst of the stupidity will get called out, usually by holding it up to the light, pointing and laughing in derision. And in typical fashion the derided will shake their little fists and stamp their little feet in anger and claim copyright violation.

Case in point. Global Geek News, a lie in every word as the site has nothing global in scope, the writer is obviously not a geek, and there is no news on it, decides it’s time to dictate Twitter policy. A person following 44 people with 57 followers decides to dictate Twitter policy. His post:
http://globalgeeknews.com/blog/?p=18

The derision:
http://www.bynkii.com/archives/2008/03/on_twitter_ettiquette.html You’ll note the comment from the writer of Global Geek News (pcnerd37) claiming “you basically steal nearly every word from my posts.” Followed by posting PCNerd37’s Legal Whining which states:

bq.Any unauthorized reproduction of the contents of any post on the Global Geek News blog is strictly prohibited without consent from Global Geek News owner Jeremy Bray.

But no matter how much you whine, Fair Use still applies and fair use allows copying parts of a work for comment or CRITICISM, wihtout permission. Now fair use allows for copying pars of a work. And that is what the Bynkii post does, copys 2 posts from a blog and then criticizes them point by point. Each quote is accompanied by criticism.

Anyway, I’ve quoted is Legal page verbatim. He can claim copyright infringement if he wants, but he’ll lose.

oh and a tip, if you don’t want other blog posters commenting on your blog posts (which pretty much requires quoting) you should probably stop providing Trackback URLs.