When I go to a local diner, I love seeing people sitting at the counter reading The Gazette. I love it even more when I overhear them talking about one of our stories, especially one that I know the reporter worked really hard to get.

Internet message boards and blogs have dramatically expanded those kinds of discussions. It's wonderful to see all sorts of people speaking up about local issues.

We at The Gazette like our articles to generate public discussion anywhere: in diners, on private message boards or here on our own Web site. But please remember that our stories are protected by copyright and posting them in their entirety without our permission violates that copyright.

Earlier this week, Justin Mason, one of our Schenectady reporters, referred me to a local message board where one of our stories had been posted in its entirety.

I took a look and, indeed, there it was. And there were others, lots of others, from our news coverage of City Hall, local school systems and county governments, to the opinion pieces Art Clayman and Joe Slomka write. There were even reproductions of some of our photos.

Posting our entire stories is not fair use of our copyrighted work. We don't object when sites summarize one of our stories and then provide a direct link to the actual story on our Web site. That’s become a fairly standard way bloggers refer to published works. People who want to read the whole story are provided a quick and easy way to reach it. That sends readers to our Web site, which is important to us, but as well allows them to return to the original site.

We are not a big corporation trying to stifle public comment; we are a small, family-owned newspaper trying to safeguard our intellectual property.

Judy Patrick
Managing editor