Online Copyright Ignorance

Over the past week or so I’ve worked with several clients who did not realize the impact of innocently taking others writings, photos or graphics and pasting them on their site or Blog.  Some even keeping the links for photos intact to the server/site the stole them from!  Yes, stole.  Copyright applies to the Web and everything on it.   E-mail is also copyright protected.

Copyright is a person’s exclusive right to reproduce, publish, or sell his or her original work of authorship. That means you need to ask if you want to use anything created by anyone else on your site or Blog.

With e-mail, this means you do not post publicly e-mail sent to you privately without permission of the Sender.  Period.

When it comes to your Blog or Web site, you cannot post content, photos or graphics without the original author/creator’s explicit permission to do so — even if you do link to their site.  They may not want to allow you to have their information or work on your site/Blog — that is their choice to make.   If you want good content for your site, be prepared to give credit (check out EzineArticles.com).

The Internet/Web is not a “public domain” environment as so many who freely use others works without asking permission prefer to believe. You may find that you get your site shutdown for that incorrect perception!

Read My Article: Online Copyright Myths

The official scoop on Copyright:

Copyrights are governed by the Copyright Act of 1976 contained in title 17 of the U.S. Code. The Act protects published or unpublished works that are fixed in a tangible medium of expression from which they can be perceived. The Act does not protect matters such as an idea, process, system, or discovery. Protection under the Act extends for the life of the creator of the work plus fifty years after his or her death. For works created before January 1, 1978, but not copyrighted or in the public domain, the copyright starts on January 1, 1978, and extends for the same period as for other works, but in any case will not expire before December 31, 2002.

Prior to the enactment of the Act, copyright protection was available for unpublished works only under common law. The Act abolishes the common-law rights, as well as any rights available under state statute, in favor of the rights available under the provisions of the Act. The Act provides for certain exceptions, however, including rights to protection for works not fixed in a tangible medium of expression, and rights regarding any cause of action arising from events occurring before January 1, 1978.

Due to the new online environment, there is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 [PDF] specifically to protect online copyrights. For more info on copyright and how to protect yourself, check out the Government’s site @ http://www.copyright.gov.

If you ever find your works have been stolen, find out where the site is hosted by doing a domain WHOIS search at any Domain Registrar.  Look at the Technical or Name Server information to determine where the site is hosted.  Then, go to that hosting company’s Web site and look for their TOS and Copyright, DMCA complaint process.  You will be required to follow that process to the “T” which includes making legally bidng statements that what you state is true while providing information to support your claim and reflect your work was taken or plagarized without your permission.

On a weekly basis I find sites and Blogs that post my work without my permission.  I then file a formal DMCA complaint with the company hosting the infringer or plagiarizer and they are swiftly shutdown, taken off line!  Hosting companies simply do not want to deal with the liabilities created by those who use their platform illegally.

So the moral of the story? If you did not write it or create it — ask the person who did for permission and respect their rights!

At your service,
Judith