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Web Legalities: Copyright

Author : Richard Lowe

Important: This article contains opinions and information about
copyright law. Keep in mind that I am not a lawyer and have not
been a lawyer in any past life that I am aware of. If you have
specific questions about copyright law you should contact the
appropriate legal resources.

People work hard to develop graphics, write stories and
articles, design web sites and build software, among other
things. They are sometimes paid for their efforts, sometimes
not. In any event, in the United States (and in most of the
world) anything that you create or write is automatically
protected by copyright.

You do not generally need to register your works with the
copyright office in order for them to be protected. Registration
simply serves as added insurance - it gives you the ability to
prove that you wrote or created the item on a specific date and
formally establishes you as the copyright owner.

The person or company (if you create the work for a company it
belongs to the company) owns the rights to publish the material.
These rights do not stop no matter how many times the material
is illegally copied or if the copyright holder gives you a copy.
He still owns the copyright unless he signs it over to someone
else.

The point is that taking someone's images, writings, songs
(MP3's included), videos or anything else is violating the law
and the person's rights. In fact, it is stealing and, if proven,
the violator can be held liable for damages.

So what do you do when you see that cool graphic or sound file
on the internet and you want a copy? Well, you can write to the
copyright owner and ask permission to use it or to make a copy
(always get written permission - anything not in writing is
difficult to prove in a court of law). Getting permission is not
difficult and it is rewarding to create a web site or other work
knowing that everything is totally legal.

I've found that most artists and writers on the internet are
completely willing to allow their work to be copied as long as
they get credit and a link back to their site. Occasionally I've
found an exception - an author or artist who does not want to
allow casual copying. In this case the best thing to do is to
follow the wishes of the copyright owner - don't copy the
material.

A good rule of thumb about using materials gleaned from the
internet is: if you have any doubts about being able to make
copies, don't use it. There are way too many good public domain
sites for clipart, music and video for there to be any excuse
for illegally using copyrighted material on your site.

One of the more interesting copyright violations occurred
between the owner of Star Trek (Viacom) and every non-sanctioned
Star Trek site on the web. Viacom decided that it didn't agree
with people using Star Trek photos, graphics, stories and other
materials as it owned the copyrights. So it send out a letter to
every site it could find telling them to cease desist. They
succeeded in alienating most of the Star Trek fans in the world
and in angering just about everyone ... and most of the site
still seem to be operating. Yet, legally, Viacom is correct ...
they do own the copyrights. But was it a good move to act the
way that they did? I don't think so, as Star Trek has a huge fan
following and allowing the fans to create literally thousands of
web sites is probably the best advertising that Viacom could
have asked for.

Some examples of behaviors that are commonly believed to be
allowable which are in fact illegal in the United States are:

- Taking images from newsgroups and posting them on your web
site. Just because something has been copied to a newsgroup,
regardless of whether the copy was made by the copyright owner
or someone else, does not mean in any form that the copyright
has been given up.

- Using articles and images from other web sites. Again, this is
illegal unless explicit permission is given or the item in
question is in the public domain.

- Scanning images from magazines and posting them on your fan
site. This is illegal as you are making a copy (a scan) of a
copyrighted image.

- Recording sound from your favorite television show and posting
them to your web site. Again, not legal.

- Getting permission from someone who has made a legitimate copy
of the material. The rule is simple: you must obtain permission
from the copyright owner or their legal agents.

- Modifying an image and claiming it as your own. Copyright
protects derivations of works as well.

On the other hand, the following are acceptable under the US
copyright laws.

- Including a few brief quotes from a book in a review. This is
acceptable under fair use laws - see
http://www.internet-tips.net/Legal/fairuse.htm

- Reprinting a confirmed public domain novel on your web site
(public domain is the theme of a future article in this series).

- Asking and obtaining reprint permission from the copyright
owner or a legal agent of the copyright owner.

- Reading an article about cheese puffs and writing your own
article about cheese puffs. Copyright protects creative works
(writings, images, paintings, sound and so on), not ideas or
concepts. You are safe as long as your work is not simply the
same as the other work with the words changed.

The best advice is simple. When in doubt, ask permission. If you
are denied permission or for some reason cannot obtain it, then
don't use the material.

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