copyrightA part of my business model requires downloading newspaper articles. Based on the sorting of those articles, users will pay me to provide urls to other articles of their interest. My ability to drive a tiny, but affluent and well-defined, demographic group to content creators will interest them.
What needs to happen for me to acquire the legal right to download articles from companies such as CNN, Foxnews, etc?
While I am sure many others have tried this business model, what I am thinking of has many wrinkles that makes it very different. Still, I need to download newspaper articles…
If I understand your idea correctly it sounds like what you are asking would require you to form an agreement with the copyright holders of all these articles. Different newspapers deal with copyright differently.
Downloading lots of articles without permission is not a good idea. Take a look at the story of Aaron Swartz if you want to know more.
Sometimes, copyright is allocated to the organization the work is published in. E.g. a city newspaper might claim copyright over the material written by a staff author.
Some newspapers only hold a non-exclusive non-transferable right to publish content. This means that authors are allowing the organization to publish content but not authorize others to republish it. For this situation you would have to ask the authors if you could republish the material.
But, because I’m not entirely clear about your business model and idea - I would strongly suggest paying a lawyer to do research on if this idea is legally viable in the country and state you live in.
Good luck!
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