Copyright, Blogs and Bloggers

This article presents a very short intoduction to issues of copyright, and how they apply to bloggers and their blogs.

DISCLAIMER

This article contains general advice about the copyright issues faced by people who use Blogger.   It cannot cover every possible case or specific legal systems.  If you need legal advice about particular issues, consult a lawyer, ideally one who is familiar with copyright law in your country and/or internationally.

What does "Copyright" mean?

In most countries, the law says that as soon as you create something (eg write an article, take a photograph, draw a picture, compose a tune, draw a map, make a slideshow), you own the "rights" to it for for a certain amount of time, usually until a number of years after you die.  And they exist just because you created the item:  there is no need to register it in any way.

While the rights apply (ie the thing you created is still "under copyright") other people are not allowed make a copy of it - in any format - without your permission.  Once the rights have ended, the item becomes "public domain" and other people are free to make copies of it.

If someone does make a copy without your permission, then they are breaking the law and legal action can be taken against them.   How this happens (criminal charge, private prosecution, etc) is different from country to country.  But breaking copyright is normally a "civil law" issue, local law-enforcement officials (police, etc) don't get involved, and it's up to you to prove that you owned the rights in the first place.

Consequences for bloggers

In short, what this means for people who righr blogs is that:

• You "own" the stuff (words, pictures, videos layouts, etc) that you create

• If other people copy it without your permission, they're breaking the law

• If people copy your stuff, it's over to you to do something about it - if you want to.

• If you copy other people's stuff without their permission, you are breaking the law.

Another important point is that copyright only applies to specific works, not to ideas.  For example:

• It's not ok for someone to make a direct copy of your picture, but generally they can make a similar photo themselves and use it

• It's not ok for someone to copy-and-paste a recipe that you invented, but it is ok if they invent a very similar item and type up the recipe themselves.

Of course this is a very broad statement.  There are detailed laws about Patents (the legal way of protecting ideas), about derived works (creations that are based on a work, but not quite the same as it), and fair use.   These laws vary between countries, so it is impossible to go into any more detail about them here.

Next:

• Things you can do in your blog to protect your work from being copied, and 
• Actions you can take against people who have made unauthorised copies of your work.

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Related Articles:

Protecting your blog from being copied

Taking action against unauthorised copies of your work

Assessing an idea for a new Blog

Removing the Attribution Gadget from your Blog

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