Okay, this post is in the form of a rant. I work as a writer, and have gotten over the years very knowledgable about copyright law.
Recently, a person posted a link on Facebook to a blog on their own blog about Disney. The link led to a post on their blog where they had copied and pasted an entire article from another website. They did credit the website.
Now when I pointed out on Facebook that they were in violation of the copyright law, they took offense and called me a troublemaker. Their post on Facebook, however, disappeared. However, the blog they have still has the article. Turns out they, like many other websites, have a lot of copies of photos and more in violation of the copyright law.
Now when I try to explain this, as I have many times, that this is wrong and cheating the writer or copyright owner out of their money and is akin to stealing this person didn’t care. And this is repeated all over the web.
Some say it is okay under the fair use doctrine. That is a myth. It is not legal, even if the website is a non-profit, and you definitely cannot copy an entire article.
Let’s put it another way. You work at what you do, you like to get paid. Well I work at what I do, I write. And I like to get paid for my work. If I do it under a contract for someone, then that is usually a “work-for-hire” and the person or company that hired me usually owns the copyright and can use it as they see fit, depending on the contract we worked out.
But it is still a copyrighted work, so are photos and videos.
When I use photos or videos from others, I always make sure I have permission to use any photo or video that is not my own. If I don’t, then online I only use links to the photos or videos, or if it has embedding code for the video embed it – the copyright holder still gets the commercial money. Same for written words, you can use a few words in the form of an attributed quote. Usually a sentence or two. But that’s it. Any more, you need permission – in writing.
What I do is how I earn a living, and so do others. So please people, don’t be ignorant about copyright law and please don’t steal my words or others on the internet or elsewhere, it’s wrong. It’s stealing.
Google’s Youtube actually has a great website (notice it’s a link) that explains a lot of copyright laws and issues, including the concept of fair use and many of the myths surrounding the fair use doctrine.
If I ever find anyone using any photo or words I have created, I go after them. If I see it through Facebook, then yes I start making comments on the post. And because I believe in others being treated the same way, I do the same even if it isn’t my website being violated.
So, yes, I am a cantankerous curmudgeon about the issue.
Those of you who are stealing, please quit doing that. If it’s mine, I will send you a cease and desist letter, then will contact a lawyer about filing a lawsuit for monetary damages. If I see you doing it to others, I will, when time permits, contact the copyright holder and let them know you are stealing their work.
Feel free to comment.
Editor’s note: Someone did comment, but their comment was libelous, so was not approved.
4 comments
While I get where you are coming from, and from a legal perspective, you are completely in the right, you also need to understand how annoying all this copyright discussion is to the pioneers of the internet. Imagine you lived in a neighborhood where everything seemed to work symbiotically. Despite the CC&Rs, your neighbors and you had come to an understanding. You understood that the little old lady next door had to crank her TV during the day, because she was hard of hearing, and she in turn invited you over when she made extra dinner. The guy on the other side of you occasionally left beer bottles on his porch over night, but he always trimmed your hedge for you, so you didn’t see any reason to complain. Then suddenly, some new neighbors moved in and started raising a stink about you, your neighbors, and everything you had been doing all along, and they expected you all to conform to *their* way of doing things, because they had the rules and the association on their side.
The thing you are forgetting here is that the original purpose behind the internet’s existence was non-commercial. It was developed jointly by universities and funded by DARPA to guarantee communication, even in the event of nuclear war. Long before the net became popular and the first credit card number was processed online, the Internet developed into a tool for academics and researchers to exchange information, ideas, research papers, etc. Scientists and engineers fully understand and appreciate the idea expressed by Isaac Newton, that he only saw further, because he stood on the shoulders of giants. In other words, no idea is completely original, but is based on or inspired by some other idea, and the free exchange of information maximizes creative output.
I personally began using the internet for university research back in the early 90s, when there was no world wide web, when the internet was mostly text based, and it took a great deal more effort than a simple mouse click to find a document, send an email, or even text chat with your friend at another university. Even when we first discovered the World Wide Web, there were only a handful of sites, and none of them were trying to sell you something, but they featured links to universities and corporate think tanks to enable collaboration. Back then, there was never any discussions of copyrights, because the internet culture developed around this free exchange of information. Now, keep in mind, that even though an explosion of non-public, commercial websites have sprung up in the two decades since, the internet itself, the medium that they are using to communicate, is still fundamentally a free one. The underlying backbone of the internet doesn’t charge you a dime, regardless of how much data you put on its fiber. It’s the reason a no-name blogger can, for the first time in human history, reach a mass audience. So, in a sense, it is somewhat hypocritical for commercial endeavors to move their way into the non-commercial neighborhood, take advantage of the freely accessible information super highway, and then start imposing their own set of rules on the people who were there first. If you are so concerned about copyrights, then why don’t you stick to the traditional forms of communication for which you have to spend money to share your ideas, such as print media or the FCC-licensed airwaves? Piracy is not as easy or convenient for others when you step outside the copy+Paste digital domain. Just Keep in the back of your mind, the next time you get all indignant about copyrights, you moved into our neighborhood, not the other way around.
You try to justify theft based on what you say was what the internet was developed for. Well the internet has evolved, and the law works the same there too. The idea of the internet not costing you a dime is hyperbole at best. Sure you can use freely accessible stuff, but not if you have ads of any kind on your website. Or you can use stuff in the public domain, or anything else from any government agency. But your argument is so shallow. Based on your justification, if I lived in your neighborhood I could decide I like your house better, and could just move in.
And as you said, I was legally, and I would add morally correct. And if you don’t care about copyrights, then why don’t you move to China?
Oh, and by the way, I’ve been using the internet and other communications protocol as long as you, so I’m not a “Johnny Come Lately.”
The post on facebook that you’re referring to didn’t disappear. The guy that posted it blocked you, so you can’t see it anymore. It’s still there, and he’s still defending his copyright theft.
did you contact the author of the original blog to let him know that his work had been copied?
I know. But I went and checked his blog and his illegal copying of an entire article is still there. So complaining about a theft made him “block” me, oh well. I don’t care. Theft is theft. Yes, I let Micechat folks know their stuff had been copied.
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