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Copyright Archives - Cathy Stucker - The Idea Lady
There is an old expression that, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” It means that when someone likes something you do enough to imitate it in their own lives, you should take it as a compliment.
I do not take it as a compliment when someone takes my work and republishes it without permission. It is not legal or right to publish someone else’s work on your blog, even if you give them credit for it.
In the last few days, I have discovered several blogs where the authors republished articles from my newsletters. They probably thought it was fine because they gave me credit. It is not fine. They may even believe they are doing me a favor. After all, they are giving me “free publicity,” right?
Well, no. It is not a favor and it is not right. Only the person who holds the rights to a work gets to decide how it may be used.
Within the blogsphere it is generally considered acceptable to quote a small portion of a post (perhaps a few sentences) and then link to the entire post. Most bloggers would not object to this, and a case could be made that it is “fair use.” This is especially so if you are commenting on what the blogger wrote. (It should be noted that there is nothing in the law that defines a specific number of words or percentage of a work that you may use as “fair use.” Fair use is a defense you may use if you get sued for copyright infringement, not a blanket right to use other people’s works.)
So before you publish something written by someone else, get permission. In the case of copyrighted material, it is better to get permission than to hope you get forgiveness.
What action can you take when you find someone has stolen your copyrighted works and used them online without your permission?
In an earlier column on plagiarism checking, I shared several tools you can use to find out if your content has been republished on the web. If you have given your permission (such as by publishing your articles in an article directory), those tools can help you track your success in making your content go viral.
But what if you discover that some of your work is being used without permission? Perhaps without crediting you, or in ways or places that you do not want your content used?
In this article, we will take a look at some of the actions you can take when you find that your work is being put to unauthorized use.
The first step is to contact the site owner. Sometimes the infringement is innocent. Some people do not understand copyright, or they believe that they are doing you a favor by republishing your work. Or perhaps the content was plagiarized by a site designer, employee or contractor who does not understand copyright or was too lazy to create original content. Send an email telling them that they are using your content in an unauthorized way, and tell them what you want them to do. You may want them to remove it, or you may just want them to properly credit you and link to you or you may demand payment for the use of your work. It is your property, so you get to decide how it is used.
Send a Cease and Desist letter (C&D) to anyone and everyone connected with the website. This could include the site owner, the web hosting company and advertisers. You can find a sample Cease and Desist letter here.
Most reputable hosting companies will shut down a site that is found to be using stolen content. Be prepared for them to pop up again on another host, though, so the process may have to be repeated.
In some cases you may not be able to readily identify the site owner or web hosting company. If they are monetizing the site in any way, though, they have advertisers. Contact those advertisers and advise them that the site is violating your copyright by using your work without permission. With the money supply turned off, stealing people’s content will no longer be profitable.
You can also file a complaint under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). This Act specifically addresses online content theft, and when you file a complaint the parties you notify (such as search engines, hosting companies and ISPs) are required to block access to the offending content.
Your DMCA complaint will be public, and it is possible that a bad guy would attempt to get retribution by filing a complaint against you. This should not be your first course of action, but instead a last resort. You can get information about filing a DMCA complaint at http://www.google.com/dmca.html
Accept that sometimes you can not stop thieves from using your content. Although it is worthwhile to be vigilant and protect your intellectual property rights, there is a point where it is not a good use of your time to track down every splogger (spam blogger) using an article of yours or to try to get every unauthorized site shut down.
Do you know where your content is? You work hard to create quality content, so you do not want others to republish your work without permission, perhaps even attaching their names to it. However, if you have put content online, chances are that someone has plagiarized some of it.
The first step in fighting plagiarism is discovering it when it occurs. It is a good idea to run your content through a plagiarism checker to see if anyone else is using it elsewhere. All of the plagiarism software listed below can be used free (Copyscape also offers paid options), and they work in slightly different ways.
You can also use these tools to determine where content you have syndicated has been published. For example, I post articles to article directories and these tools can find sites that have chosen to publish my articles. That is authorized use, not plagiarism, but it is good to know when and where my articles are being used.
Copyscape.com is perhaps the best-known service to detect where your content is being used. The free service allows you to enter a URL. Copyscape looks at the page, then looks for pages containing the same content. There is also a premium service that allows you to paste a block of text that they will check to see if it appears anywhere on the web. This can be useful for checking that content produced for you by paid writers in original, and not plagiarized. Their Copysentry premium service automatically scans the web looking for content copied from your site and notifies you when matching content is found.
Plagium.com allows you to enter a block of text or a URL and find anywhere else the text appears on the web. They go one step further, allowing you to sign up for alerts to be notified if they find a new instance of your content, a service somewhat like the Copysentry feature at Copyscape, but free.
FairShare.cc asks you to enter the RSS feed URL for your site, then creates an RSS feed for you showing where your content is used on the web. This is great for tracking where your content has been republished when you have released it for republication via article directories and CreativeCommons licensing.
CopyGator.com monitors your RSS feeds and looks for sites using your content on the web. You can set up your feed for monitoring by installing a badge on your site or entering the RSS feed URL at the CopyGator site. If you add CopyGator to your blog’s ping list, they will be notified whenever you add new content.
Google Alerts will monitor for phrases you enter. You can set up an unlimited number of alerts and tell Google to send you an email weekly, daily or as soon as they find an instance of the phrase. For example, you can set up alerts for your name, your URL, your article titles, or unique phrases found in your articles. When searching for multi-word phrases, be sure to enter the phrase in quotation marks so you get an alert only when the entire phrase is found, not any one of the words.
Each of these services can be helpful in tracking where your content is being used on the web, both in authorized usage and when it has been plagiarized. You may choose to rely on one tool or some combination that keeps you informed of where your content appears.
Notice: I am not an attorney, and this should not be considered legal advice. For additional information, please refer to the Library of Congress web site or consult an intellectual property attorney.
There are many myths and misunderstandings about copyright. Copyright law can be complex, but there are a few basic things you should know about copyright.
Copyright exists as soon as words or an image are put on the page, audio or video tape, a computer disk, or in any medium which is subject to copyright. You do not have to register your copyright, or even put a notice of copyright on your material; however, both are things you should do. You can register your copyright with the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress.
You can’t copyright an idea, only the expression of an idea. It has been said that there are only 14 plots in literature, but there have certainly been more than 14 novels and plays. Certain plot elements are used over and over, but what makes each story unique is the combination of plot elements, characters, settings, conflicts, etc. There may be similarities in plot (idea) but the expression is unique.
You can’t copyright a title. Names, titles, words, and short phrases are not subject to copyright. However, you may be able to trademark your title or a word you made up within your title.
Remedies under copyright law are civil. That means that if someone violates your copyright, you can’t have them arrested, you have to sue them. Proving copyright infringement can be difficult and expensive. If someone infringes on your copyright, consult an attorney to determine your rights and the best course of action. Sometimes, a strongly-worded letter from your attorney is all that is needed to resolve the situation.
If you are using words or images created by anyone else, be certain you have the right to do so. For example, even if you paid a photographer to take a picture, the photographer owns the rights to the photo unless you have a work for hire agreement.
Both the Library of Congress and the Patent and Trademark Office have lots of free information at their web sites explaining the basics of copyrights, patents and trademarks.
For more information about copyrights, refer to the web site of the Library of Congress.
Another great resource for information about intellectual property law is the web site of attorney Ivan Hoffman.
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There is an old expression that, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” It means that when someone likes something you do enough to imitate it in their own lives, you should take it as a compliment.