Reblog this at your own legal risk

Bloggers rip, reuse and rehash text and media from the entrails of the Internet all the time, but the legality of doing so remain contentious.

Legal questions aside, the major blogging platforms have come to facilitate the reproduction of content from other websites.

Last week, WordPress, the top host of blogs, added a “reblog” feature. Clicking that button composes a new post housed on your blog suffixed with the headline, description, thumbnail and link to the source material — a process nearly identical to adding a link to your Facebook profile.

“Borrowing” content has been a common practice among bloggers practically from the beginning. You can take whatever you want as long as you give credit, right?

Not necessarily.

I ‘slurp’ content all the time as you can see here. Follow the ‘via’ link feature for a better understanding of the ‘dos and don’ts’…