This was originally posted 16 years ago. Opinions, facts and reality may have changed.
According to the editor of an American cookery magazine, copyright doesn’t exist on the web. Which was news to me. And probably to you as well.
Here’s the back story in brief: writer Monica Gaudio discovered that an article of hers (“A Tale of Two Tarts”) had been republished in “Cooks Source” magazine, with her byline but without her permission.
Slightly miffed at this behaviour, Monica tracked down the editor and made some simple demands, an apology and a $130 donation to the Columbia School of Journalism.
And of course the editor of “Cooks Source”, Judith Griggs, made a fullsome apology and happily handed the $130 over to Columbia didn’t she.
Er, no. She came out fighting.
“…honestly Monica, the Web is considered ‘public domain’ and you should be happy we just didn’t “lift” your whole article and put someone else’s name on it! It happens a lot, clearly more than you are aware of, especially on college campuses, and the workplace.”
Once Monica went public with the copyright theft, the story was picked up by print and online media, and the magazine’s Facebook group swelled from 100 “fans” to (at the time of writing this on Monday morning) 5,656. Though, as you can probably imagine, these new “fans” weren’t leaving messages of love and support.
Lance Whitney at CNET was one of the people who covered the story: speaking to New York copyright attorney Alex Chachkes who for me nailed the fundamentals of this story: “Time Magazine publishes things on the Internet. I don’t think anyone’s going to say that you can take a Time Magazine article and republish it with or without the byline and then sell it in your own magazine.”
On a daily basis, there’s a story somewhere in the press about the music industry handing massive bills and threatening court action to people accused of illegally-downloading music. Every time I sit down to watch a DVD and am told to choose which country I’m in, I *never* say the UK so I can skip that annoying “you wouldn’t steal a car” trailer (similarly, don’t choose Australia, they get it too… I find you’re safe with somewhere Scandinavian). And, far too frequently for it to be rare, I am asked by a client to use images they’ve found through a Google search for their web site.
The Internet has brought all the information in the world to our fingertips. With this power comes a degree of responsibility.
Just because we can download an MP3, use a photo or pass the work of another off as our own doesn’t mean we should.
Copyright law is a mess and extremely-misunderstood. Thank God for Google to get the facts.
Based on an article by Brad Templeton and a fact sheet from the UK Copyright Service, here’s a ready reckoner on the basics of copyright. Because it doesn’t hurt to be informed.
1. Copyright is automatic
Once something is written: it’s automatically copyrighted. It doesn’t need to have a (c) symbol attached, you don’t to stick a copy of the “work” in the post to yourself or any of the other myths.
This is thanks to the Berne copyright convention (and you thought the Swiss only gave us chocolate and Cuckoo clocks).
2. Defend it or lose it
Copyright and trademarks are different. Anybody who has ever worked in the media will have received one of the letters: either from Hoover or Formica, or someone similar. When you’ve written an article and used a term in a generic sense – Hoover when you meant vacuum cleaner or Formica when you meant a type of kitchen worktop.
Use the name generically – or without the initial capital letter – and a polite but firm letter will come winging to you. Whilst the letters may seem anal, the companies are simply working to ensure their trademark names don’t pass into common parlance to describe a “type” of product as opposed to a specific one – such as aspirin, escalator and yo-yo.
Copyright is yours to do with as you will and nobody can take it away from you.
3. Copyright violation isn’t a crime…
It’s theft, pure and simple. Whether you’re plagiarising someone else’s work in an essay or book, illegally downloading an MP3 file from the web or watching a pirated DVD – you’re stealing. I’m not considering moral arguments here, simply stating the facts
4. I can copy 10 per cent of something without it being a problem
Nope. Nada. Niet. There is no magic figure for “fair usage” and the consideration for copyright cases that have gone to trial tends to focus on the importance of the information that was used.
5. If I don’t make money out of it, it’s ok
Again, a complete myth. Just because you’ve, for example, offered copyright material for free doesn’t absolve you of guilt
6. It’s free advertising! “They” make enough money not to be hurt by this
Not your decision to make. The copyright owner might not want the advertising and, yes whilst it’s difficult to have too much sympathy for U2 losing album sales when the band are multi-millionaires, it’s not up to ‘us’ as to how much money they should make from their last album (that said, having heard it…).
7. If I make changes to copyright material, then it’s new and original – and I can do with it what I like with it
It’s called a derived work, essentially you’re piggy backing on the work, efforts and ideas of others. And, no, it’s still breaking the rules.
The only exception to this rule is material offered through a Creative Commons licence. Explaining Creative Commons is best done by looking at this web site.
8. And finally… everything on the internet is public domain so I can do what I want with it
Well, hopefully, that one’s quashed now…