Weblogs and Fair Use?

CBNobi asks: "Most large news distribution sites do not archive news articles after a certain period of time. Being a weblog 'author', I sometimes write editorials in response to the articles. It is difficult for my rants to stay relevant when I end up linking to a dead page. I've read the fair use laws, but is vague on digital storage. So, my question is - how do fair use laws apply to the digital setting, where it is non-profit, but can be seen by others? (Or alternatively - is there a public, digital archive of news stories?) I find it odd that it is [usually] fine to link to news stories, but it becomes copyright infringement once it becomes impossible."

Comments

I think you might be missing a distinction

[Locke!Erasmus]

IANAL but... There is a big difference between including a link to a news article (or any other content) in your weblog and actually taking a copy of the news article and hosting it somewhere else (for archiving purposes after the news provider removes it from your website. In the first case, you are just posting a link. The news providers' content remains on their website. In the second case, you are actually copying content that they own and placing it somewhere on the internet that is not under the copyright owner's direct control. See the difference?

Quote relevant portions

[KittyTheCat]

Isn't the standard approach to this kind of problem to quote the portions of the article that you are referencing.