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You may think you understand copyright issues, but do you really?

• It’s a lot more complicated than you might think
• I thought I understood it – hey, I went to college
• I understand plagiarism

However, there is much more to copyright infringements than copying and pasting someone else’s writing as your own.

I am by no means an expert or a lawyer, but here are a few misconceptions I found in working with customers on business blogs.

Copyright Misconceptions

#1 – If I give credit to the author, I can copy it to my site

This is the most common misconception I find in working with customers.

If you did not receive permission, it is probably an unauthorized use of their copyrighted material.

• The work of an individual is copyrighted as soon as they create it
• Even if that individual did not register it for copyright protection

#2 – It’s on the web and considered public domain, so I can use it

Let’s first look at what public domain means. 

Public domain is creative work that can be used freely by everyone and is not protected by copyright. 

Because so much of the Internet is “free,” many mistakenly believe that anything posted on the Internet is public domain.

The key is why the creative work is not copyrighted.

This chart gives a good summary. 

For purposes of this discussion, the first item is the most relevant.

• A work’s protection (for work created January 1, 1978 or later) starts when the creative work is “fixed in tangible medium of expression”
• That protection lasts for the life of the author, plus 70 years

#3 – Since I didn’t use the whole work, I am okay under “fair use”

This is a tough one.

What makes it difficult is determining when something goes beyond fair use.

Basically, fair use means using a brief excerpt of creative work, typically credited to the author, that does not hurt the commercial value of the original.

For example, suppose a magazine you subscribe to, charges for that subscription.

• You use excerpts from one of their articles on your blog
• If your excerpt is extensive enough that your readers would have no need to subscribe for additional information, you may have gone beyond fair use

Things You Can Do to Protect Yourself

You see how complicated the copyright issue is.

The following are a few suggestions for protecting you and your business.

• Assume the creative work has copyright protection
• Read the copyright conditions of the website/blog
• Look in the footer under Terms and Conditions or Terms and Notices
• Review your “fair use” excerpt objectively
• Could your excerpt hurt the commercial value of the original?

This has been an ongoing education for me. I hope by sharing this information it helps protect one of your greatest assets – your business reputation.

Below are a few helpful resources on copyright information.

If you have comments or other resources, please share those. As always, when it comes to legal issues, your best source is your own legal counsel.

Helpful Resources

Brad Templeton has a very helpful site on copyright basics and myths.

Something I learned at Brad’s website was that even using links to sites might be a violation. We will need to pay attention to this one.

Copylaw.com also has useful information on copyright myths.

Writer and Webmaster, Jonathan Bailey, has a fabulous site dedicated to copyright protections and plagiarism, called PlagiarismToday.

It began from his own experience with having his work plagarized, but the site is about much more than plagiarism. You never know what passion will produce.

A shout-out thanks to Anne Wayman who recently wrote on this topic and introduced me (through her blog) to Jonathan.

Notice of Disclaimer –Cathy Miller is not an attorney and cannot provide legal advice. The information provided is for your general background only, and is not intended to constitute legal advice as to your specific circumstances. We recommend you review specific laws with legal counsel.