It seems to me that some webmasters think that because a website has a feed available it means that they can take that feed and put it on their website, slap some advertising/affiliate links around it and make money — reality check.

Feeds are just the website’s content in another form, but it’s still the author’s content and the author still has copyright ownership. The feeds simply make it easier for their readers to see when the site is updated and easier to get the information from a central location such as their feed reader.

Whether or not a copyright notice is placed on the website, the author still maintains the copyright to it and it does not change unless the author expressly relinquishes those rights or gives permission to use their content.

Yes, there is fair use:

Fair use is a copyright principle based on the belief that the public is entitled to freely use portions of copyrighted materials for purposes of commentary and criticism.
~ Source

If you’re blatantly syndicating their entire website, the webmaster being stolen from may not see it as ‘fair’ use.

Taking the feed and putting it up on your website and putting your ads around it is like walking into someone’s home, taking their stuff, then turning around and selling it without their consent — also known as stealing.

Syndicating someone else’s content on your website without permission breaks the DMCA and can get you into some seriously hot water, not only with the search engines and your host, but you may find yourself tangled up in a sticky legal web.

It’s important to think before you use someone else’s feeds on your site (especially for monetary gain):

  • Use feeds that are distributed under the Creative Commons license which allows for commercial use (just because it has a CC doesn’t mean you can use it for profit)
  • Use feeds from article databases which allow you to syndicate to your website
  • Syndicate public domain information
  • Seek out webmasters who want you to promote their feeds - but be sure to read their terms and make sure you comply (it’s never a good idea to burn bridges)
  • If you really must have the feed from a specific site, contact the site owner and try to work out a mutually beneficial agreement

If you’re worried about content theft, Darren Rowse has a discussion brewing about protecting yourself from content theft and Paul Short has come up with a great solution for WordPress users to help deter content thieves.

If you’ve already found yourself to be the unfortunate victim of content theft, Darren also has some great advice for getting the situation resolved.