The Golden Pencil: The Freelance Writer’s Resource

Copyrights and Wrongs for Freelance Writers

by Anne Wayman on August 1st, 2005

I often get questions about copyright and fair use. The questions run along two lines:

• Writers who want to do things right when it comes to quoting and attribution, and,
• writers who are afraid they are going to be ripped off.

To both groups I say, remember that neither ideas nor titles can be copyrighted. And, in the U.S. and Canada at least, once you’ve written something, it’s assumed to be copyrighted even if you don’t show the copyright symbol or register your copyright.

To the writers who want to do the right thing about honoring copyrights, I say your own words are often better than others for the purpose you’re writing about. When you quote someone, name them and name the source. When it comes to fair use, which, in the U.S. is designed to allow commentary and criticism, less it truly more, and still requires attribution – not permission.

And to the writers who are afraid of being ripped off, I say, don’t spend a lot of time on this. Sure, with the internet it happens. It’s happened to me and probably will again. Go ahead; send a letter to the webmaster telling them that there is stolen material on their site. Give them the specific url so they can find it, and keep your fingers crossed. Or, thank them for posting your work and ask them to post your own url and figure it’s marketing.

Unless the misuse is flagrant and consistent and large, you’re probably better off spending most of your energy on writing new stuff rather than trying to enforce violations. It’s a judgment call.

And if you’re not in the United States, learn the law in your country. Just google your country name and the word “copyright” and you’ll have access to way more information than you want.

Write well and often,

I’ve written an article on copyrights, and I’ve posted some helpful links about copyright and fair use.

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POSTED IN: General Freelance Writing