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Understanding Fair Use, Public Domain, Creative Commons, and Copyright Law

Copyright laws are exclusive rights given for a limited time that allows original creators or their sponsors set conditions on making copies of an original work. Albeit Copyright puts restrictions on copying; Fair use laws provide exceptions to the restrictions put by Copyright law. It is in order to allow commentary, criticism, citations and other ethical usage of the original work. If Fair Use guidelines are followed with integrity, then it is not essential to take overt permission of the original contributor while adopting their work.

Understanding Fair Use

Ideally, copying a little excerpt or part of the original work with an attribution to the source material would fall under the Fair Use doctrine. Also, if your copying of the excerpt of the work is to harm the original work in any way that is commercial; or otherwise, you would have no right to turn to the Fair Use excuse.

Reworking on an article and ensuring that it passes through Copyscape smoothly is not the solution. Writing a concept down with different words does not make it your idea. The Fair Use doctrine encourages you to indulge in building up on any and all existing ideas; but it is to be remembered that Copyright offers protection to theme of the original idea.

Usage of Material Under Public Domain

Works subjected to the time bound Copyright eventually become open to the Public for reuse. Which means upon expiry of the applicable Copyright, people get open permission to duplicate and reproduce it. They need not take any kind of permission, and one is not even required to make any payment to the original creator in the form of royalties etc to use the material as it is.

Also, if a work is not lawfully covered under the copyright law, it automatically is open to Public reuse. One can reuse such work without having to reach the original creator.

Usage of Material Under The Creative Commons License

Creative Commons is an association that has introduced a medium which can be used instead of traditional copyrights. In this medium copyright, and public domain meet midway; the Creative Commons license allows you to distribute and duplicate work, albeit under pertinent guidelines.

Usage of Appropriate Plagiarism Tools And Copyright Notices

Services on the internet like Copyscape let you defend your website and its content with plagiarism warning banners; in addition to the services that allow you to search for duplicates of your content on the internet.

Services like My Free Copyright go a step further as they allow you securely upload your original creations, following which a virtual fingerprint of the uploaded material would be kept, enabling the said material to be protected as well as registered. Taking these steps help in at-least keeping the vandals who directly copy materials at bay. Again remember these are not full proof solutions into safe-guarding your original work..

Putting appropriate Copyright notices on pages inform readers that material is subject to Copyright protection and that they should be careful when handling them.

Some Ideas May Sound Common

Bloggers might have genuinely come up with common ideas. We live in a small world whereby the entire planet is connected within the reach of one another by a few mouse clicks or keystrokes. Most ideas we hear these days are repetitive and if you think a bit, it is easy to find a link between someone’s apparent original ideas, with something that is already in existence.

Blogging is an experience that is built on making online relationships with likeminded individuals and sharing ideas with them. It’s important to be open to sharing and letting other bloggers build up on your contributions. Progress is not one man’s game; it is the effort of many.

Unless your rank will go down if someone has copied an excerpt of yours, or it is harming you in any way, blogosphere expects bloggers to be open to sharing.

Copyright Laws Vary From Place To Place

It is a well known fact that each country and region works in its own way and is governed by its own set of laws. The law might be similar at large, but then again there are always intricacies and details that are unique to a particular place; as they should be. It is always advisable to approach an appropriate legal consultant. Knowing the generic idea about blogging copyright laws is often inadequate at times; legal help is the best way to go about being safe on the internet. So, when ever your blog reaches substantial size, it is advisable reserve funds for your legal friends.

Over To You

How do you protect your copy-written content? How do you avoid legal problems when using content on your blog? WE’d love to hear your comments.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended for legal advice and we are not legal professionals of attorneys. Seek professional legal advice when need, this article for reference and discussion only.