Bloggers, First Amendment and Fair Use

The New York Times reported today a growing number of complaints against bloggers for copyright infringement across the journalism community. The main argument stems from disagreement over what constitutes Fair Use. Under this section of the Copyright Act, there are 4 things that determine Fair Use:

1. Intended nature: commercial vs. educational
2. The nature of the copyrighted material
3. Amount of material used (i.e. the publication of 2 paragraphs of a 5 paragraph document vs. 2 paragraphs of a 100 page document)
4. The market effect or subsequent value of the copyrighted material

So if a blogger syndicates a newspaper column in their blog, is it covered under Fair Use? Honestly, I can see both sides. On the one hand, blogs are arguably an educational channel, and if there is a link back to the original column, the blog post would have a positive impact on the publication. However, columns are not usually too lengthy, so by reading a blog post, users could read them in their entirety without needing to go to the publication’s site. This would adversely affect the impact of the copyrighted material.

In an ideal world, bloggers would be able to get approval from copyright owners prior to syndicating content. But in reality this step would significantly slow down the blogging process.

Which is more important–timely blog posts or abiding by copyright standards?

Do bloggers have the authority to syndicate content without getting approval from the copyright owners?