Plagiarism
It’s probably a word you haven’t heard since writing essays in school, when your instructors told you that any evidence of it could result in a failing grade. But copyright is something to be aware of when creating content for websites and social media campaigns – whether that be asking whether you are legally allowed to use a photograph, a page of text or an idea… or determining whether someone else is entitled to use content you or your clients have created.
Can I use this?
If you created an image, passage of text, video or website for your own personal use, the answer is yes.
According to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, the moment an idea becomes a concrete concept, the creator holds copyright over their intellectual property. No registration or notification is required – although adding a statement of copyright including the copyright holder’s name and the year of creation may be helpful.
However, there are some cases where your own personal copyright may be superseded. For website designers, the most common case is “Work for Hire“. For example, my postings on this blog, although written by a specific individual, are copyrighted to the WSI offices in Holmfirth.
Building websites, depending on the precise terms of the contract signed between client and designer, can be either “work for hire” that becomes the intellectual property of the client or independently contracted work where the rights to the work do not pass to the client. Unless the contract explicitly specifies that the work is being done under a work for hire agreement, it is generally considered that the website code (if not the copy and photographs) remain copyrighted to the website designer.
If the original image, text, code or video was produced by someone else, permission must be obtained from the copyright holder in order to use it, even in a modified form, unless the creator has placed it into the public domain. Publishing content on the internet, contrary to popular belief, does not make it public domain – it is still the intellectual property of its creator.
Another case where copyright becomes particularly important is the use of stock images from online stock image libraries. Although many libraries offer royalty-free usage, most of them state in their licence terms that only the individual or company that has paid to obtain the image can use it – and cannot distribute those images to others for use. Even an image obtained for a website design on behalf of a client is still limited by the terms of this type of licence – the designer can use it in the process of building the website, but generally cannot send the image to a client for the client to use in promotional materials, for example.
Can they use that?
So, you’ve created original content, and using a tool like www.copyscape.com you’ve discovered that it’s been duplicated somewhere without your knowledge.
Unless a number of very specific conditions are met, your content cannot be published online without your permission. These conditions are known as “Fair Use” and include situations like:
- Excerpts quoted for the purposes of news reporting
- Educational uses including research and private study
- Excerpts used for criticism or review of the work in question
What can you do if you find out that duplication of your content without permission and outside the fair use specifications has occurred?
The first port of call can be to contact the person who has used your content without permission. In most cases people are unaware of copyright restrictions online – and are quite happy to remove your content and/or give you credit for the work.*
If this fails, pursuing the issue with the site’s hosting service may have positive results without resorting to potentially expensive and time-consuming legal wrangling.*
Anti Plagiarism Resources
The following resources may be useful to any designer or site owner who wishes to learn more about intellectual property – and specifically intellectual property online:
http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/
* Disclaimer: This blog post is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for legal advice. If your content has been republished without permission – or you are unsure whether you are entitled to use content – we recommend that you contact a qualified solicitor for legal advice in your specific situation.
