Copyright and Copy Wrong

By M. J. Joachim

Copyright Defined

Copyright is the exclusive right given to an originator or an assignee to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic or musical material, and to authorize others to do the same. Without copyright, anyone can use and copy your work.

By law, intellectual property is owned by the individual who created it, and is therefore inherently protected by copyright. This applies to creative works including writing, photos, artwork, digital work and more. If you made it, you own it, and it is protected by copyright, unless you give it away.

In other words, no one can reproduce, alter, distribute or display your work, without your permission first. You also have the right to determine how your work is used, changed, distributed or displayed. You even have the right to sell your work, trade your work and donate your work. No one else has these rights for your personal intellectual property, or the work produced from its creativity.

Including the © symbol at the end of your posts (and in the sidebar of your blog), along with All Rights Reserved is a valid way of protecting your work with copyright. It is also a good idea to include the year. “As a general rule, for works created after January 1, 1978, copyright protection lasts for the life of the author, plus an additional 70 years,” according to the U. S. Copyright Office.

By adding your copyright notice to your work, you automatically have a time and date stamp on it, something necessary to prove the work was yours to begin with, should you have a dispute with someone unauthorized who uses your work. It is not enough to simply put your work out there, in hopes that no one takes it. You have little recourse if they do, especially if you can’t prove it’s been copyrighted, and the date your work was originally published.

Crediting Others for Intellectual Property

Photos and artwork, often used to enhance written articles, belong to the person who created them. Many of them are free for the taking, provided some fundamental rules are followed, mainly that of crediting the author and acknowledging the provided copyright agreement.

Pictures on the web provide information about whether or not anyone can use them, as well as how they can be used. They also provide the terms for people to use them. Many are for sale, some offer minimal rights for a one-time fee, others are free to use, providing you credit the author, per the specified instructions listed where the picture can be found.

It is not enough to post a picture stating it came from Wikipedia or someone’s website or blog. It is not enough to link to the picture, without giving credit as specified by the author.

To find out the copyright information for a picture you want to use, click on the picture and read the listed copyright information. Then follow it to the letter, before using the picture for your own purposes. If you can’t find copyright information, it is advisable to contact the owner of the work and ask if you can use it. By doing so, you ensure that you are protected from actions of piracy being filed against you.

Thank you for visiting and commenting on the A – Z Challenge Blog today.

M. J.

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Photo credit: Copyright (Simple English) Wikibook Header, Public Domain; Copyright Machine, *doctormo, Creative Commons Attribution – Share Alike 3.0