If I rewrite a news story from one or more sites in my own style, will there be any copyright problems? I am planning to put whole news articles on my sites but I like to publish whole article instead of just feeds. Therefore, I like to rewrite whole story and like to know if any legal issue if I do so. Any ideas, appreciated. thank you
I've seen people do it before, and whole companies do it before. I would do it. Things like press releases are great.
Yes there is an issue. It's called a derivative work and you can find the details under Copyright law. Don't try to model yourself after the press. They have licenses. For instance, the AP might release a story. The BLAH BLAH Times gets the story. Under their license, they can rewrite it. That said, a press release can be rewritten and they are rewritten often. However, you must make sure you're rewriting from the ORIGINAL press release. If you rewrite from another party's copy, you could be making derivative works of anything original they put in there. Press releases can be good places to start. They usually are written like crap--from a story perspective. So use them to get an idea and rewrite it to be more news-worthy.