Cute new CBC hidden links may be copyright trap
Seems CBC really wants bloggers to cut and copy their articles after all.
Go to a CBC article and copy a paragraph or a sentence or even the middle of sentence and viola "Read more:" and their link automatically appear.
Example 1: a fragmented sentence
es said the administration decided against limiting the nation's options further because of the danger still being posed by the pro
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/04/06/nuclear-weapons.html#ixzz0kMstCc5u
Example 2: So far the smallest sampling seems to be 45 characters
ement, U.S. President Barack Obama said the p
Example 3: Drop one character and the link is not generated.
ement, U.S. President Barack Obama said the
It all seems silly, since all you have to do is delete the link, but maybe it is a legal thing, where you knowingly deleted their link and therefore they can now demonstrate that you knowingly broke copyright.
Just a thought.
BTW this article links to a CBC article at least twice that I know of.
Comments
The National Post has been doing this for quite a while as well.
Then again, you never know.
Seriously though I think anonymous is right. This annoying practice is popping up all over the world. Hopefully it's just an unnecessary reminder to credit them for their work.
I'm a big supporter of the CBC, but if they must they should get additional revenue from ads, and leave their poor readers alone...
Did not now about the Post, but I only tend to quote them, when trying to ridicule their biased reporting, in which case they get all the credit. Besides their number of posted articles at least nationally seems to be dropping, maybe there have been some cut backs in the web division lately.
And I agree you should always give credit to the source, even if in many cases it is a feed for the Canadian Press.
I just found the new technology being deployed, entertaining.
But you are probably correct, it is just a reminder to include the link, because more hits, especially to articles inside the Home page, will allow them to charge more for the inside banners and pop up ads.
Hey anything I can do to help the CBC as I too am a supporter.
Maybe they should start sponsoring a network of bloggers to exclusively use the CBC articles as sources and links. It will increase their hits. After all there are multiple versions of Canadian Press articles being used as fill each day and as a blogger you could choose any news service.
The selected bloggers could earn so many points for each hit they generate and then bonus points if they used multiple links in a Neilson ratings week or some other criteria. The points could be used towards the $250 copyright thing or maybe a new iPad.
That would be magical.