Content curation is HUGE online. We all share links to articles, videos, pictures, etc. That’s really a big part of what social networking is — sharing information with those in your network. However, there’s a big difference between sharing links to content and republishing. Republishing is when you take an entire piece of content or a large chunk of it and republish it on your site or somewhere else. I don’t claim to be a lawyer and I’m not offering legal advice — ask your lawyer for that. But you do have to be aware of how you are allowed to use content online. Because it’s easier to get access to the content and share it, you need to be aware of your own rights and those of the creators of the content.
Fair Use
Fair use is a term that people throw around all the time. “I can use their content because of fair use!” is what is often claimed by people who republish or take large portions of others content for free. In reality, fair use covers a fairly narrow set of uses, almost all of which are non-commercial. Venture Beat has a great article which covers music sampling, but has some nice definitions of fair use: There’s no such thing as a free sample.
Sharing
Sending out the title and link to content is different than republishing. Under almost all circumstances sharing a link to content is fine.
What to do if it happens to you
Problogger has a nice article on What to do When Someone Steals Your Blog’s Content – Blog Plagiarism and Lorelle on What Do You Do When Someone Steals Your Content. Just remember that you have legal rights to your content under US law. You don’t have to and you shouldn’t let people unfairly use your content without your permission.
Thinking that someone should feel grateful for how you’ve used their content is not the same as doing something that’s right or legal. If you’re not sure, ask the content’s author for permission.