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Canadian Newspaper Charging $150 License Fee To Publish Excerpts

Posted by samzenpus on from the cut-and-pay dept.

dakohli writes "Michael Geist has pointed out an interesting development at the National Post's website. 'If you try to highlight the text to cut and paste it, you are presented with a pop-up request to purchase a license if you plan to post the article to a website, intranet or a blog. The fee would be $150.' He notes that even if you are highlighting a 3rd party quote inside an article a pop-up asking if you want a license will appear. Mr Geist points out this might be contrary to Canadian Copyright Law's fair use provisions."

9 of 217 comments (clear)

  1. What if... by Synerg1y · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I right clicked > view source and copy pasted from there? ...

    but then couldn't the newspaper find the content I copy pasted and come after me for theft or something? ...

    what if I posted as AC? :) ...

    what if AC posted it and I copied it not knowing the source?

  2. They're certainly free to do this... by Entropius · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They have a computer. If you ask their computer nicely, it will send you some bits.

    They're free to send me whatever bits they like in response to my request (so long as they don't materially misrepresent what they are, as in the case of malware etc.). In turn, I'm free to do whatever I like with the bits they send me. If I want to interpret them as instructions for rendering a webpage, as is conventional, I can do so. I can also print out the HTML and wipe my ass with it if I like.

    If that webpage has some Javascript that says "Ooh, you highlighted some text, pay me please!" I am free to turn off Javascript and cut and paste that text, or render it in Lynx, or grep the HTML, or whatever the hell else I want.

    If they didn't want me to have access to the text they sent me, they shouldn't have sent it to me.

    1. Re:They're certainly free to do this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If that webpage has some Javascript that says "Ooh, you highlighted some text, pay me please!" I am free to turn off Javascript and cut and paste that text, or render it in Lynx, or grep the HTML, or whatever the hell else I want.

      Unless that counts as 'circumventing a digital lock' according to the Conservative Party's draconian copyright legislation. Then you become a criminal.

    2. Re:They're certainly free to do this... by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You turned Javascript off, potentially committing a crime

      No, I turned Javascript off for security reasons. There are a number of attack vectors involving Javascript, and it is pretty straightforward to see that running arbitrary software you receive from a website is a potential security problem.

      Newsflash: your website does not have any right to run whatever software it pleases on my computer, and I am not under any obligation to run your software regardless of what you claim it does.

      --
      Palm trees and 8
    3. Re:They're certainly free to do this... by flayzernax · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Actually he is free to do whatever the fuck he wants short of some arm of the military or police dictating otherwise at the behest of some assholes like you.

      To believe that he is not free is a foolish assertion.

    4. Re:They're certainly free to do this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      Actually he is free to do whatever the fuck he wants short of some arm of the military or police dictating otherwise at the behest of some assholes like you.

      Well yes some arm of the military or the police will ultimately enforce his lack of freedom in this regard. But you are 100% wrong if you think it is at the behest of some asshole like me. I'm one of the assholes who is just as unfree as he (or you).

      To believe that he is not free is a foolish assertion.

      He is not free to do whatever he likes with information protected by IP. That's not a foolish assertion ... it's the law.

    5. Re:They're certainly free to do this... by flayzernax · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That law has no power or force on its own. Making a law does not create a physical force stopping people from action.

      To see it that way is some kind of insanity, maybe one of the other more eloquent /.er's could help illustrate.

      You can make laws that sodomy is illegal. Yet we still have sodomy going on. Fact of life, people fuck each other in the ass. You cannot circumvent free will with laws. Laws are not inherently moral or just. They are just laws. That is all.

      And all law is is a rule for the use of force by society on the individual. Government. Sometimes these a laws provide useful guidelines.

      This one is total bullshit.

  3. Re:Embrace the experimentalism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The fee should start out as two cents, natch.

    Since we're talking about Canada (which has abolished the penny), that will round down to an even zero cents.

  4. In related news ... by PPH · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ... the Post will begin a program of licensing for people who cut letters out of their printed copy to compose ransom notes.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.