In this case, that’s true. I typed it because I’m a speed typist and thought someone might want to copy it.
But in the general case, when there’s no image, can I excerpt from the middle of an article rather than the beginning?
Also click on the Moderator's Links
You should be able to take the excerpt from wherever you want.
I question whether what you did is illegal, however. All you did was duplicate another person’s excerpt from a published book, presumably one page out of several hundred. If that blogger violated copyright law, then you did too.
The real issue is whether the size of the excerpt violated the standard for “fair use”, but the law doesn’t seem to clearly define any word limit on a fair-use excerpt.
If the blogger had reproduced an entire chapter, that would be a problem. But a single page? I doubt it.
And would the author object to that single page being lifted? I would think he would consider it to be a free advertisement for his book, and ultimately put more money in his pocket if a lot of people see it, and want to read more.
As for Free Republic, it doesn’t appear that the DC Whispers blog is on the excerpt-only list. If it did, you would hear from a moderator.
You can excerpt what you want, up to the limit:
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1111944/posts
Do not do an excerpt and then continue below. Jim gets REAL lawsuits.