Legal Question in Technology Law in Michigan

Re: Copyright Law

Fair use does not reasonably include use on Ebay or some other site, but in reality a lot of business is done on EBay and manufacturers have not sued anyone to stop the use so far, since it is clearly a resale outlet for their products.

Fair use includes using snippets, and using content for comment /parody / educational, etc. purposes, but it does not include the wholesale taking of someone else's writings to use on your site.

Therefore, you cannot freely use someone's content on your site, even with attribution. It's not good enough to admit you didn't write it, if it forms a substantial amount of your content. For example, you cannot take someone else's newsletter and put it on your site in a frame, even if you acknowledge that you grabbed the site from elsewhere. You need the uathor's permission.

There are balancing tests courts use to determine whether a person has taken too much, but you don't want to end up in court debating the issue.