Copyright: Part 1 – Just Because It’s Online Doesn’t Mean It’s in the Public Domain
June 22, 2008 by Lillie
Table of contents for Copyright
- Copyright: Part 1 – Just Because It’s Online Doesn’t Mean It’s in the Public Domain
- Copyright: Part 2 – US Copyright Law
- Copyright: Part 3 – Fair Use
- Copyright: Part 4 – Protecting Your Copyright
A post by Jeanne Dininni at Writer’s Notes got me thinking about copyright. She had her work posted on a Web site without permission though the site owner gave her credit and a link to her site. Another piece was actually plagiarized. Be sure to read the ongoing conversation in comments as well as Jeanne’s post.
Jeanne differentiates between the unauthorized use and the plagiarism, and I agree they are different. Plagiarism is deliberate theft; unauthorized posting of work with credit and a link is most likely the result of ignorance.
I’ve never had the experience of having my work stolen. As common as unauthorized use of content is, the only reason I can think of that I’ve been spared is because no one has found my work worth copying. 
Joking aside, unauthorized use of content is a serious problem – and not just online. Most people are ignorant about copyright. Here are just a few examples from my own experience:
- Several clients have asked me to use something they found online in a document I am preparing for them. In some cases they plan to credit the source; in others, they just want to copy the material without credit. When I tell them the material is copyrighted, they respond, “No, it’s not copyrighted. It’s online.” Many people sincerely believe that if it’s online, it’s in the public domain.
- One client wanted me to include some material from another publication in a manual I was creating for her company. I explained that would be a violation of copyright. “But I wrote it,” she said. This lady is highly ethical and would never think of stealing money or property, but she just didn’t understand that she would stealing the rights of the copyright owner if she used the material she had written as work for hire.
- I even encounter this in editing my church’s newsletter. Just this week, a church member submitted two articles for publication in the newsletter. Both were copyrighted – one was a newspaper column and the other had a copyright notice on the page along with “used by permission.” I explained that the copyright to the newspaper column was probably owned by the newspaper unless the author was a syndicated columnist who owned the rights. And even though the other document said “used by permission,” the permission was granted to the source where the submitter got the material, not to us. Again, this is a man who tries to live out his faith and operates at the highest standard of integrity. Yet out of ignorance, he asked me to violate two different people’s copyrights in our church newsletter.
Even if the person doesn’t know any better and thinks he is giving the writer the ultimate compliment by posting the work, writers need to be diligent and require copyright violators to remove the work. If we allow our work to be used without permission, we are contributing to the deterioration of our rights. We need to protect our work by educating people about copyright.
Lillie,
Thanks for the mention and link to my post! I appreciate both! The issue of unauthorized use of a writer’s work will likely affect most online writers at one time or another during their careers.
The practice of posting the work of other writers is certainly becoming more and more prevalent due to the ease of copying and pasting work on the internet. It used to be that to “borrow” someone else’s work one had to painstakingly type it out, which–while hardly a deterrent to the most determined–nevertheless likely caused some to think twice about the practice. Today, however, that last barrier of inconvenience has been removed. The sad fact is that it’s simply too easy and therefore too tempting to take it upon oneself to provide an unrequested–and possibly unwanted–forum for an online writer’s work. And the even sadder fact is that it’s every bit as easy to copy and paste that work, remove the author’s byline, and call it one’s own.
Thanks for clarifying some important facts about copyright for your readers!
Jeanne
I try to use a copyright often. Some times in the past I have forgotten. I know I should have used one when I created a tiger site. I had added a message board, so people could let me know what they thought about tigers. Someone went as far as trying to claim the site as her own. My site is still online, but there is no longer a message board. If I do decide to put back the message board, I plan on adding the copyright.
I think with online publishing it is harder for people to know when they are violating the copyright laws.
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copyright laws are important for any writer out there.
It does upset me in some ways when I see my content on others sites. In terms of online publishing, one of the most important things to do is to ensure that your content is properly indexed in google. As long as your site is indexed, then google is usually pretty good about picking out duplicate content, so in many ways does not help the sites that simply scape content and put it up on their blog.
Lillie,
thank you for your article. I live in the US and I am originally from Eastern Europe. I have a webpage dedicated to a band, it runs under an European domain. In Eastern Europe online copyright laws are terrible, if someone is stealing your work, you can not really do anything, especially while my site does not making me any money. I pay for the site and the interviews, articles and graphics are my work, done in my free time, but I do not make from those any money.
So. The site in bilingual. On the English part there are the original interviews, all of them are from other sites, credited and with a link to the original site and article. When I started the site I was told this is the right way to publish them. Lots of the articles was offered to me by the original authors. There were several occassions when the original reporter found his or her article on my site. They never complained, but they were extremely happy because I traslated the articles. They told their writings had never been translated into any other languages.
On the other hand there is quite a few sites from where other users stole as much things as they did from my site. Translations, images, everything, they just keep shpowing up on the net. If the theft is really rude, I complain, otherwise I don’t use to mind.
Sorry for the ramble, and thank you for the article again.
Hello Lillie,
Thank you for sharing this timely post. The “scrapers” don’t seem to care about the copyright laws. But they’re not the only ones who steal content.
To protect my intellectual property, I’ve stopped posting as frequently as in times past.
Manchild
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How about a full site rip?
I ahe had atleast 50 people come and copy my niche site and make an exact replica of it and they profit from it.
This is what i hate, and if they are in another country what am i suppose to do ?
I am part of a fandom that takes a lot of photos of our favorite celeb. Copyright is a huge issue with us, because the photos are taken to share with other fans, and yet, every once in a while one person decides to try to exploit the kindness of the photographers. There have been several instances of these photos being sold on eBay or elsewhere, which is hard for most of us to understand. But the truth is there are always going to be people who attempt to profit (monetarily or otherwise) by claiming the work of others as their own. While the internet has made it more easy to access most materials, I think it has also made it more likely that they will be caught and/or easier to bust.
Great piece on this topic, thank you so much for sharing it!
Thanks for these excellent reminders – I agree that much “plagiarism” is really related to ignorance rather than malice. I’ve learned a few new things, also!
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Thanks for these great tips. Unfortunately, it seems plagiarism is rampant on the Internet. I often find “RSS Blogs” that take bits of content from my blog each time I post. Not sure what to do about that.
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Writers typcially learn all about rights and often pay a lot of attention to what rights they are selling when sending proposals to periodicals. I am surprised, not that people think anything on the Internet is in public domain, but that a writer would think she owns the copyright to material after signing away the copyright.
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