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BlackandWhite · 04-01-2009, 01:01 AM

so if I was to have a blog or site about a new to be released movie lets say, if I get the information such as release date, actors, and all other movie information from other sites do I have to source that in any way or can I just summarise everything I read without sourcing it?

Horus_Kol · 04-01-2009, 04:46 AM

sticky ground...

yes, it is likely to be information in the public domain, but they took the time to do the original research and post the information up.

for a single article, you might get away if each snippet was uniquely sources (within the article), maybe... but you'd start coming unstuck as you are publishing more than that...

i'd say its half a dozen of one and six of the other - i'd assess it on each bit of information.

besides - link outs to your sources can mean for high quality back linking - thanks to pingbacks and trackbacks (although, this won't directly affect your site ranking, you're more likely to get people visit you via back links and then they're more likely to link to you - and this will boost your ranking)

BlackandWhite · 04-01-2009, 06:19 PM

Ya, I still dont really know the answer to this. I just was thinking that all information has to come from somewhere and looking at websites, most of their information has to come from another site, book, magazine etc. So again back to the movie site example, since I cant actually talk to people behind the movie and the only way for me to know anything about it is by looking at websites. Would I really have to source that? I have never seen(except for wiki and other encyclopedias) sources on the website.

So for media information, as long as I am not copying the works of others and just using the information, I assume it is part of the public domain. More input would be apreciated.

Horus_Kol · 04-02-2009, 11:25 PM

it all depends...

a personal blog is a different thing to a full media blog... proper media blogs have to work hard to get the scoops and interviews, and I don't think they appreciate a competitor muscling in using the information that they gathered.

if you look around at a lot those sites, you'll see that they may not cite or reference things (since they may have gotten firsthand), but they will likely link to where they got it from (if not originally sourced)