Copyright Issues
 

Is it allowed for someone to copy an entire newspaper article, online or otherwise and post it here? On one site I am a member of, (based in the US), that is a bannable offence.

On that site, you can only copy one or two lines and you must then put a link to the article. They do not even like you putting in a link to your own site where you may have scanned a copy, unless you have written permission from the copyright holder.

They say this is for legal reasons

What is the position here?

Isn't copyright where you take something and claim it as your own?

In theory you are only allowed to copy excerpts of an article.

But we've never had a problem before with copying whole articles (from media outlets only) as long as you link back to the originating site.