. . . is no excuse, or so the saying goes, and it is true, at least when it comes to copyright.

Much has been written in the blogosphere lately about copyright; specifically, how it concerns posting materials online if you didn't create them yourself.   As writers, of course, our work is protected by copyright law, and that is sometimes how we view it: copyright law is something to protect others from stealing our work.  Naturally, we would never want to steal someone else's work either, but the ease with which we can all now share images and text online can make it entirely too easy to do exactly that, even if we never intended to do so.

So today I thought I would jump into the conversation.  Please note that I am not a copyright lawyer.  This post is not a comprehensive discussion of copyright law, and is not to be construed as legal advice.  I simply want to provide you with some resources to enable you to do your own research.  If you take away only one thing from this post, let it be this: If you are in any doubt whatsoever that what you are about to post online is legal under copyright law, DO NOT POST IT.  Period.

What is Copyright?

 According to the US Copyright Office,  "copyright" is

. . . a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States for original works of authorship, including literary, dramatic, musical, architectural, cartographic, choreographic, pantomimic, pictorial, graphic, sculptural, and audiovisual creations. "Copyright” literally means the right to copy. The term has come to mean that body of exclusive rights granted by law to authors for protection of their work. The owner of copyright has the exclusive right to reproduce, distribute, and, in the case of certain works, publicly perform or display the work; to prepare derivative works; in the case of sound recordings, to perform the work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission; or to license others to engage in the same acts under specific terms and conditions.

Simply put, if you did not create the work, you do not have the right to copy it--in paper, digital or any other form--unless you have been specifically granted such right by the copyright owner, the copyright owner has specifically released the work to the public domain or to the Creative Commons (read the small print first!), or the copyright has expired.  There are some exceptions, most notably the Fair Use Doctrine, but that probably doesn't mean what you think it means.  More on that below.

A nice introduction to US copyright law can be found here: http://www.templetons.com/brad/copyright.html.   A quick "dos and don'ts" post is available at http://www.dailyblogtips.com/copyright-law-12-dos-and-donts/.

The US Copyright Office also has a great website, at www.copyright.gov.  Given that the focus of my posts is usually on England, I feel I should provide a link to the equivalent authority in the UK, which can be found at http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk.  The Templetons post noted above has links to Australian and Canadian copyright information.

Consequences of Copyright Infringement

According to the US Copyright Office, copyright infringement occurs "when a copyrighted work is reproduced, distributed, performed, publicly displayed, or made into a derivative work without the permission of the copyright owner."  In the United States, copyright law is primarily civil in nature, so generally speaking, you cannot go to jail for posting something on the internet (although there are some exceptions).  However, if you are sued by the copyright owner, the costs can be steep, even if you ultimately prevail.  Here are some personal experiences of those who have encountered this problem:

http://ddkportraits.com/2012/02/why-i-tearfully-deleted-my-pinterest-inspiration-boards/

http://blog.webcopyplus.com/2011/02/14/legal-lesson-learned-copywriter-pays-4000-for-10-photo/

http://www.roniloren.com/blog/2012/7/20/bloggers-beware-you-can-get-sued-for-using-pics-on-your-blog.html


Fair Use

Most of you are probably familiar with the term "fair use," which allows for some use of copyrighted material without express permission.  It is a narrower exception than you might think.  Section 107 of Title 17 of the U.S. Code provides that "the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright."   The statute then sets out four factors to be considered when determining whether something is fair use or not, which you can read by clicking on Section 107 above.  

It is important to remember that you cannot confirm when you use something whether it is fair use or not.  Fair use is a possible defense to an allegation of copyright infringement, and although some lawyers contend that it is a broader right, the fact remains that only a court can decide if a particular activity qualifies as fair use.  If you have to get to that point, you have probably already spent more money than that cute pic on your blog was worth.

In sum

This post is merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this issue, and given the rapidity of developments in information exchange in this crazy world of ours, anything I write could very well be out of date by tomorrow anyway.  I will leave you with a simple admonishment to be careful about what you post.  Your blog posts may not be as pretty, but you won't get sued either, at least not for copyright infringement.  (You can be sued for what you write as well, but that is a topic for another post.)

And now I will leave the world of law to go back to Victorian England, where my 15 minutes a day pledge seems to be paying off.

Until next time,

Marin