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Old 03-08-2010, 02:03 PM   #12
Caveat Emperor
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Join Date: Dec 2004
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Re: First in Print-Cincinnati Enquirer's New Policy

Quote:
Originally Posted by OnBaseMachine View Post
It's free material, and I always post a link to the article. Even on the pictures I always reference where they came from.

Is it okay to post blog updates?
The issue is, it *isn't* free material.

Websites like Enqurier.com rely on advertisements on the page to bring revenue from their online content (much like RedsZone now does). When you post the full text of an article on here, you're allowing people to read the content without going to Enquirer.com and viewing the advertisements. Even if you don't look at a single ad on the website, you're still reducing the number of "site views" -- which, in most cases, effects how the ads are priced (and therefore the money made by the website).

On the issue of photos -- it's something to look at as well. When you post images directly from other websites (as in, just copy the "image link" and paste it directly onto your post), you're not only content-poaching (which, again, robs the original site of the page views and accompanying ad revenue), but you're also stealing the bandwidth of that website by requiring their servers to load the image every time a RedsZone thread gets viewed.

For now, I think the best thing is for people to be more judicious about what they post. Most content isn't free -- and if you don't know whether you're allowed to post a given article, best to air on the side of caution and provide a snippet with a link.
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