If you have a blog and/or social media accounts that you regularly update, have you ever thought about how your postings could be infringing on copyright? Since blogs and social media accounts often contain outside content, it’s important to know what’s protected so that you can avoid copyright infringement penalties.
The fundamental rule to copyright is simple. Anybody who creates an original creative work has ownership rights. Intellectual property protected by copyright laws includes writing, photographs, video, paintings, graphic art, choreography, sculptures, info graphs and anything else that is an original. The owner has exclusive rights, but can choose to give permissions that allow others to use their work.
Fair use of creative work is complex, so if in doubt, refrain from use. In evaluating a question of fair use, these four factors should be taken into consideration:
- Purpose and character of the use, including whether it is of a commercial nature or for nonprofit educational purposes.
- Nature of the copyrighted work.
- Amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole.
- Effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
There is no legitimate defense against violation of copyright. Even if the following occur, you are still in violation of copyright:
- You didn’t know the material was copyright.
- You have removed the image and no longer use it.
- You modified the original image.
- You acknowledged the original creator.
- You are not making money from the copyrighted work.
- You are using a disclaimer on your website.
In order to stay safe and be sure you aren’t violating copyright infringement, use sites where the images are posted by the copyright owners themselves and state that they can be used under a creative commons license. This gives copyright owners the opportunity to attribute certain permission to their intellectual property. Using images from Google without searching for “labeled for reuse” and images posted to social media (Facebook, Pinterest and Tumblr) could be copyright infringement. When it comes to sharing images on social media networks, take precaution and be sure to follow these tips to be sure you aren’t violating copyrights.
