Can I be sued for displaying online articles from online newspapers on my web application?

The "can I be sued questions" always get me because you are asking a question with too low a bar. You can be sued fairly easily without doing anything wrong. Online articles are protected by copyrights, just as articles in the morning paper are protected by copyrights. If you display the entire article on your page, you could be sued for copyright infringement. More likely, the online newspaper will send you one or more cease and desist letters. If you comply, they are unlikely to sue you. If you persist, then they may sue. Litigation is expensive and carries risk and most businesses do not dive into it spontaneously. The better way to display the articles is a headline, a fraction of the article, and a link to the article. If you are a source of a traffic for the online newspaper more than an alternative destination for readers, they are not likely to want you to desist and you may coexist amicably. Good luck, Todd