What Happens in Vegas: Review-Journal Sues FreeRepublic.com

I'm not sure where I come down on this particular issue. I'm a blogger, and as a regular part of Greenlee Gazette, I very often post excerpts from other sources.  I usually write at least a little as a lead-in, sometimes a lot. And I try to only excerpt a small enough portion (as below, always accredited with links) to fall under "fair use."  If the item is very short, sometimes I'll post the whole thing,  but that is rare.  So far, I've never gotten a complaint, and I'm very easy to contact.

That said, the target of this lawsuit is FreeRepublic, one of the leading arch-conservative, tea bagging outpost of the interwebs.  Theirs is a site of no dissent, extremely one-sided, Obama hating, Palin loving wingnuttery. And they basically have homophobia written into their bylaws.  Understandably, if something sour befalls FReeperland, I'm not going to cry about it too hard (tears of joy, maybe). Still, as a fellow internet commando--albiet from 180-degrees away, ideologically--a win for the Las Vegas Review-Journal could have a negative impact right across the blogging board.  Dammit, I prefer my schadenfreude a little clearer-cut.

[Excerpt]

Conservative website among 3 sued over R-J copyrights

A conservative news-sharing website with plenty of experience in dealing with copyright issues has been sued for copyright infringement after Las Vegas Review-Journal stories allegedly were posted on its site.



Free Republic LLC, James C. Robinson and John Robinson, who are associated with the website www.freerepublic.com in Fresno, Calif., were sued in federal court in Las Vegas on Monday over the postings. . .

Read more at: Las Vegas Sun