If I’m working on a website that aggregates fishing reports in a single place and works by crawling the internet for reports/pictures in those reports, am I able to display the reports/pictures?
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If I’m working on a website that aggregates fishing reports in a single place and works by crawling the internet for reports/pictures in those reports, am I able to display the reports/pictures?
Will be infringing on any copyrights?
Asked on December 7, 2015 under Business Law, New Jersey
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 8 years ago | Contributor
No, you can't display other's reports or their photographs/pictures/graphics without their permission without violating copyright: copyright prevents anyone from using another's original textual or graphic materials without permission (which generally means without payment). You *can* create your own report, even if the basis of the report are others' reports, since copyright doesn't protect information per se, but only the expression of that information (e.g. the sentences, graphs, etc. used to convey it), but you would have to do research and write/illustrate your own report, rather than automatically picking up content from others.
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