I use articles from other sources

on one page of my site. I give full credit, author inc., and link it back to the source...legal?

 

Only if you have their permission or it is classified as commmon article.... meaning free use...

If unsure contact the writer... most people will greatfully let you post their article for link back.

 

If you got it off an article directory site, and followed the rules of that site, you are okay.
If you scraped an article off a news site, or any other site, you are legally in deep doo-doo.
It is best, and the only way, to ask first before scraping an article.

 

crap I was afraid of that

 

That's debatable. If you went to Article Site 01 and used an article of mine that I did not authorize anyone to use, you can bet that I coming after you too. You could then go after the article website, but you are not exempt from liability. In fact, most article distribution websites, that know what they are doing, put in their terms that they are not certifying ownership or guaranteeing the items are allowed to be used. Use at your own risk.

As to giving credit, that does not give you a right to use other people's work without permission. By using it, you just destroyed the exclusivity of the work. In today's time, I would think the original owner could come at you for extra damages if SE's picked up their work on your site and so forth.

Bottom line, don't use anything that's not yours unless you have written permission from the work's owner.

 

Article directories do say that if you submit an article, that others can use it.
So if you submit and article and do not want it used, tough crapola, as they say.

 

I did not mentioned anything about me submitting an article.

I was referring to someone taking an article off of my website, without my permission, and using it on an article submission website. Then you come along and use it. You both are liable. The article submission website made no claim as to license, authorship and so forth, which may exempt them from action from you. However, your liability with me still exists.

 

Yeah, that can be a serious problem.
Most article directories do not check to see if it is actually the submitters article or a scraped article.
And for sure, plenty of dishonest people on the net who take articles, change the name and links to their own, then submit them as their own work.
I have seen articles taken straight from news sites and news blog, run through an article generator program, and poof...new article.

Not like the old days (what, 2 years ago or so?) before the article content craze where you could write and article, get an ezine to publish it, and find your email overrun with requests to run in other ezines and websites.

 

You can't reproduce an entire article and then simply link back to the original source, that's not legal and you'll get in trouble. You can quote a sentence or two, or even summarize the article and use quotes from the original article while crediting them.

PM me with an example of what you're doing, and I'll help you. I've been running a media site for six years with HEAVY scrutiny on this subject and have never received a letter or e-mail because of this.

Ian

 

It's also important to note that sometimes the company paid for the work, even though they give credit to the author.

For example, let's say I write a report on the impact miniaturization of electronics has had on the vision of Americans in the 18-30 age range. One day, you find my report at a well known website. You see they have given me credit (perhaps a link). You copy it and give me credit as they did. You are now in trouble. Why? What you did not see (or know) was they paid me a fee to use my work. It happens all the time (example: academic textbooks).

 

To get around this you scrape the good sites:askmen.com, about.com, msn.com, etc.
Then you scrable(Rearrange similar words and sentence structure)so the content so the authors have know idea it is their content!
My site has over one trillion pages indexed by google and I make one billion dollars in adsense revenue! Plus I don't even live in the US so they can't catch me!

 

Would rss feeds count?

 

what about pictures to enhance the look of the articles? Say i get an article about cosmetic, and to make it looks prettier, I grab some pictures from the net, say Avon or Maybelline, and put that just behind or in center of the articles, what would come after me ??