Is it OK to copy material from a website?

The short answer to this question is "no," unless the author's permission has been received. Copying material from a website and posting in on another website or publishing it in a newsletter, for example, may violate the copyright of the person who developed the website. The information need not have a copyright notice or symbol associated with it to be copyrighted, because copyright protection arises as soon as an author creates a work of original expression and fixes it in a tangible medium. The contents of a website are no different than the contents of a book or magazine in terms of copyright protection; the fact that website publishing is vastly easier than other types of publishing makes no difference. Copyright law allows "fair use" of small parts of copyrighted works without the permission of the author. If the reproduction is for the purpose of criticism, news reporting, teaching, or research it is more likely to be fair use than if it is copied for commercial purposes. It is difficult to make this determination in advance, however. (Findlaw)