Carroll County Times Articles
Be Aware of Copyright Infringement on the Web
by Isabel DeFeo – August 23, 2009
How many of you have seen the exact same wording on various Web sites?
Or read a phrase that seems inconsistent with the writer's skill?
I see it often on student papers in my English classes. If it's suspicious, I take a passage from the paper and Google it. More often than not, I find at least three sites using the same passage. Sometimes an entire paragraph or essay is repeated word for word.
So which Web site has the original work? It may be hard to determine, but it brings up an interesting topic that anyone, whether student, Web designer or average office worker, should educate themselves about: copyright and copyright infringement.
Now, I am no expert, but through the years, I've taken time to learn a little about copyright and copyright infringement and I've learned enough to know how to avoid it. The Internet makes it so easy to copy and paste content and images from Web sites. People do it all the time.
I do it, too, but I think about copyright and keep in mind the following guidelines to avoid copyright infringement: If the image is for personal use. But you could not sell to-do lists using that same image. That would be copyright infringement.
There is no need to become an expert on copyright infringement, but it certainly is prudent to know what can and cannot be copied. And it is good to learn a little about "fair use." That's when you can take a phrase or paragraph that someone else wrote and use it, but you have to use quotations and openly acknowledge the source next to the quotation. Without acknowledging the source of the work, you are infringing on that author's copyright.
What got me thinking about copyright was a story I heard.
There was man driving through his neighborhood in Prague, Czech Republic. He saw a huge picture of a family on a giant city billboard. Would you believe that he knew the family in this advertisement? It was taken from a Christmas photograph that was posted on the Internet by a family from Missouri.
The story has stuck with me and it should with you. The business that paid for the advertisement did not have permission to use the photograph. It was the property of that family. And it was a fluke that this family ever found out that their photograph had been used in such a manner. How would you feel if it had been you?
So the next time you get ready to copy and paste, ask yourself how you plan to use it. Educate yourself about copyright, so you can use materials in an ethical and legal manner. And if you are posting on the Internet, take some steps to try and protect the things that you have created.
About the Author
Isabel DeFeo is a board member of the Carroll Technology Council and owner of IMA Web Design. The company helps individuals and small businesses build a Web presence on a limited budget. She can be reached at idefeo@imamarketing.com.
