Web Legalities: Copyright

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This article contains opinions and ... about ...
Keep in mind that I am not a lawyer and have not been a lawyer in anypast life that I am aware of. If you have specific qu Important: This article contains opinions and information about copyrightlaw.
Keep in mind that I am not a lawyer and have not been a lawyer in anypast life that I am aware of. If you have specific questions about copyrightlaw you should contact the appropriate legal resources.People work hard to develop graphics, write stories and articles, design websites and build software, among other things.
They are sometimes paid fortheir efforts, sometimes not. In any event, in the United States (and inmost of the world) anything that you create or write is automaticallyprotected by copyright.You do not generally need to register your works with the copyright officein order for them to be protected.
Registration simply serves as addedinsurance - it gives you the ability to prove that you wrote or created theitem 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 tothe company) owns the rights to publish the material. These rights do notstop no matter how many times the material is illegally copied or if thecopyright holder gives you a copy.
He still owns the copyright unless hesigns 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. Infact, it is stealing and, if proven, the violator can be held liable fordamages.So what do you do when you see that cool graphic or sound file on theinternet and you want a copy? Well, you can write to the copyright owner andask 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).
Gettingpermission is not difficult and it is rewarding to create a web site orother work knowing that everything is totally legal.I've found that most artists and writers on the internet are completelywilling to allow their work to be copied as long as they get credit and alink back to their site. Occasionally I've found an exception - an author orartist who does not want to allow casual copying.
In this case the bestthing to do is to follow the wishes of the copyright owner - don't copy thematerial.A good rule of thumb about using materials gleaned from the internet is: ifyou have any doubts about being able to make copies, don't use it. There areway too many good public domain sites for clipart, music and video for thereto be any excuse for illegally using copyrighted material on your site.One of the more interesting copyright violations occurred between the ownerof 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 sendout a letter to every site it could find telling them to cease desist. Theysucceeded in alienating most of the Star Trek fans in the world and inangering just about everyone ...
and most of the site still seem to beoperating. 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, asStar Trek has a huge fan following and allowing the fans to create literallythousands of web sites is probably the best advertising that Viacom couldhave asked for.Some examples of behaviors that are commonly believed to be allowable whichare in fact illegal in the United States are:- Taking images from newsgroups and posting them on your web site. Justbecause something has been copied to a newsgroup, regardless of whether thecopy was made by the copyright owner or someone else, does not mean in anyform that the copyright has been given up.- Using articles and images from other web sites.
Again, this is illegalunless explicit permission is given or the item in question is in the publicdomain.- Scanning images from magazines and posting them on your fan site. This isillegal as you are making a copy (a scan) of a copyrighted image.- Recording sound from your favorite television show and posting them toyour web site.
Again, not legal.- Getting permission from someone who has made a legitimate copy of thematerial. The rule is simple: you must obtain permission from the copyrightowner or their legal agents.- Modifying an image and claiming it as your own.
Copyright protectsderivations 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 acceptableunder fair use laws - see http://www.internet-tips.net/Legal/fairuse.htm- Reprinting a confirmed public domain novel on your web site (public domainis the theme of a future article in this series).- Asking and obtaining reprint permission from the copyright owner or alegal agent of the copyright owner.- Reading an article about cheese puffs and writing your own article aboutcheese puffs.
Copyright protects creative works (writings, images,paintings, sound and so on), not ideas or concepts. You are safe as long asyour 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 deniedpermission or for some reason cannot obtain it, then don't use the material.
Article Tags: Copyright Owner, Star Trek, Images From, Posting Them, Permission From Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com .