This question is about English-language "news" sites (i.e. sites that have articles about something new that has happened in e.g. science, technology, or some other area of interest) which I am guessing are located here in USA, for the purpose of my interest in limiting the jurisdiction in this question.
In this case this question is specifically related to writing "news" articles about news that are covered at other news sites.
The issue is that I have frequently seen different sites write articles about something new that has happened and these articles often make a reference to some other news site where the news item had first appeared.
The questions I wanted to ask are:
- Is this thing of copying the gist of a news item, or paraphrasing a news article that has appeared at some other site, copyright infringement?
- Or is it covered by the fair-use laws that exist in USA?
- If it is not covered by fair-use laws, how do so many different news sites get around writing about the same subject without infringing on a copyright? Are there some informal agreements or formal contracts that cover for this?