Copyright - It’s Really Quite Simple - Mostly
Recently I’ve been around discussions about copyright violations. I say “around” because I’ve not participated, just listened and felt sad. The first was a discussion among a couple of college professors. If I understood what they were saying, several students had been expelled because they’d been found to copying whole paragraphs in their papers without giving credit. According to one professor at least one of the students seemed to simply have no idea that copying without giving credit was illegal or in any way wrong.
Of course, I haven’t talked with the students in question, but if it’s true, they simply had no idea their action was wrong, I’m sad… sad for our educational system that doesn’t make it clear right from the beginning that while ideas can’t be copyrighted, their expression can be. Thus, if you copy the words of this blog without giving me credit it’s a clear copyright violation, and you’re subject to civil penalties. And if you copy the whole entry, rather than just a sentence or two, you’ve probably violated the “fair use” doctrine and needed permission from me and b5media in writing in order to avoid potential prosecution.
If, as I suspect, most of the students knew it was wrong and did it anyway, hoping or even expecting to get away with it, I’m still sad, and probably a bit angry too. But I’m sure I’ve got things in my past like that. It’s just a shame that they’ve put such a smirch on their history so early.
The second discussion has been about the use of celebrity and/or sports pictures in blogs. I’m not involved in either category, but I was tempted to grab a news image or two during the writer’s strike. Finding images for a blog about freelance writing is a bit of a challenge, which is why you usually get icons. But I didn’t dig too deeply for pix of striking writers because I knew that it was unlikely I’d find any that I could use with impunity. There are legitimate sites on the web that offer photos for free, or low cost. One of my favorites is: Stock.XCHNG
There I can often find an image I want to use for no cost or other restriction.
I am talking about copyright in the United States; that’s where I am. I know the rules are different ’round the world. My hunch is it boils down to roughly the same thinking no matter where you are. If you didn’t create it, and you don’t have specific permission to use it, don’t!
Write well and often,
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4 opinions for Copyright - It’s Really Quite Simple - Mostly
Mary Jo
Mar 3, 2008 at 5:07 pm
And it’s important to remember that “fair use” is not really a doctrine. It’s a defense to a charge of copyright infringment. That is, you raise it after you’ve been sued.
Anne Wayman
Mar 3, 2008 at 6:57 pm
True, well said, thanks Mary Jo.
Kristen King
Mar 4, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Yup, lots of people think fair use is a right, but it’s a protection after the fact. Fair use is determined on numerous highly variable criteria, so people need to be very careful before just deciding to snag something and call it fair use.
Anne Wayman
Mar 4, 2008 at 5:28 pm
If I remember correctly, it was originally designed to allow book reviewers to quote snippets… is that right?
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