Copyright Law
DISCLAIMER: I’m not a lawyer. This is my own view on copyright law regarding literary works. Read and follow this information at your own risk.
I really have had a hard time creating this post. I just didn’t seem to be happy with the first two drafts. I blame it on my lack of research, and so before writing this post I did a little more reading. Copyright law is a very big subject and one which I’m not going to get into in a lot of detail. What I’m interested in (and hopefully what you’re interested in) is the copyright law related to creating content.
Every article you write is basically based on something else someone has written. Before writing an article or essay, you do research and from that research you put together your own article, essay, or book. Therefore, technically no content is ever 100 percent original.
Copyright law gives the creator of a literary work the exclusive rights to that work. The creator can do what he wants with that work. Copyright law is automatic and comes into force as soon as the work is fixed in a tangible form (something real, such as a webpage or book).
Copyright does not protect an idea that someone has come up with, it protects the way in which that idea is expressed. That means that you’re allowed to take someone else’s idea, and express it in a different way (as long as it isn’t patented). When creating online content, research the topic of your content first, and then write about it. That way, you won’t break any copyright laws. If you write an article as you read other articles on the same subject, you’re going to copy. Do all of your research first, wait an hour or two and then begin to write your article. Furthermore, if your work is heavily based on someone else’s, link back to the original work.
Copyright laws are difficult to understand and very judgemental. When is a work original enough so that it’s void of any copyright infringements? It’s very hard to tell and as a result, you should follow the method I outlined above. Do your research first…
If you’re unsure if a work is copyrighted or not, ask. E-mail the owner of a website or article to see if you can use their content on your site, or even ask if you can base your own article on their article. If you’re unsure, ask for permission.
When trying to see if a work is in the public domain, look for any licenses or agreements. For example, Wikipedia.org’s content is protected by the GNU Free Documentation License. If still unsure, again e-mail someone or post on forums. If a literary work is void of copyright, it should be fine for you to copy it (bad for SEO, but legal). However note, just because there is no © symbol, doesn’t mean there is no copyright. Remember, copyright is automatic.
Copyright is such a huge subject that I may post a few more articles on the subject in the future, I actually find the topic interesting (yes, I must be weird). Proper research is the topic of the next article in this series. I’m really beginning to get into this series. Content is at the heart of any site, and content creation is something which many people find hard to do (me included). Therefore, the more help you get the better and that’s what I’m here for.
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3 Responses to “Copyright Law”
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CyberCelt
February 29th, 2008
[...] you’ve finished your research, take a break and then come back to write. Taking a break will ensure you won’t just copy someone else’s work. You should have learnt about your topic [...]
Active Research - it's incredibly important | aaronfalloon.com
February 29th, 2008
You may want to link to this simple game that explains copyright.
http://www.stfrancis.edu/cid/copyrightbay/fairuse.htm