How to avoid copyright infringement
We understand that not every social media influencer, blogger, or digital marketer is a talented photography artist. The simple way of getting images for your brand is stock images. One of the things you don’t want to be caught off-guard with is copyright infringement costly legal action. Most copyright laws remain complicated and misunderstood by businesses. We aim to help you learn how to operate your business within copyright parameters to avoid copyright infringement.
What is copyright protection?
Copyright © is an intellectual property (IP) right that protects any original creation. It empowers the copyright holder with exclusive rights to determine how, when, and who can copy, exhibit, or distribute their work.
Copyright protection is extended to paintings, photographs, films, music, choreography, sculpture, literacy work, audio recordings, architectural drawings, and other creative content. Copyrights © remain actionable for as long as the creator is alive, plus 70 years after. However, it is important to know that it doesn’t extend to facts and ideas.
It is different from other forms of intellectual property such as patents, trademarks, industrial design, trade secrets, plant varieties, and trade dress.
Copyright infringement
The violation of any creative’s intellectual property (IP) is referred to as copyright infringement. You can look at it as stealing or piracy of someone’s original content. More so, if someone else benefits from the material and not the creator.
Nonetheless, you can still copy and distribute someone’s work without violating copyright law. For this reason, it is important to understand copyright law, its rights, and its limitations. This way you can protect yourself from being subjected to a legal process.
As a creator, your work won’t be valued less if it doesn’t have the copyright symbol © or notice. You also don’t have to register your work with a copyright office to have copyright protection. All published and unpublished work is protected under the same copyright laws.
The main purpose of copyright protection is to encourage creators to share their original work. To ensure they are recognized for their work and they economically benefit from it. As a result, they continue sharing their work with the public and enriching their lives in some way.
Examples of copyright infringement
- A video presentation with copyright footage and no acknowledgment of the footage.
- Music played on a site with no licenses or the required permissions.
- Business newsletter with no attribution to images owner(s).
- Duplicating a company’s T&Cs or copying third-party material on a website without the owner’s permission.
- Using background music in your video without obtaining permission.
- Downloading movies, TV shows, eBooks, music, or software on a site not owned by the owner/ without any payments made to the owner.
How to avoid copyright infringement
1. Be cautious when taking anything from the net
“I got it online.” isn’t an excuse against copyright infringement. Any material online even without the explicit copyright symbol is copyrighted by default. Whether in the U.S, UK, or any jurisdiction, it is safe to assume that anything not specially dedicated to the public domain or creative commons is under copyright.
2. Be very careful when writing fiction material based on other content
Any fiction characters, setting, and storylines are copyrighted. Whenever you are drawing characters by copying someone's work be wary. Nevertheless, stock characters are a safe bet as they aren’t trademarked or copyrighted.
3. Be wary when relying on ‘fair use’
‘Fair use’ is there to ensure that copyright laws don’t infringe on people’s freedom of speech. The ‘fair use’ context includes research, teaching, critiquing, reporting, non-commercial use, or commenting. To understand the nuances of fair use, ask if you are in doubt. Ignorance isn’t a blank check protecting you from copyright infringement.
4. Read, and read some more
Always read the T&Cs that are included in any creative content if you want to copy or share. You are legally accountable for the actions you take so better safe than sorry.
The consequences of copyright infringement are financially and reputational-wise costly. Technology today has made it easy to share people's original content. For your sanity and peace of mind, if you want something, create your own or pay for it.