Picking the right copyright application and identifying what you are registering Every Sunday night I make a cup of tea and plot out my week at the kitchen table. I pull out colorful pens and my trusty Little Ostu planner. I make sure my appointments in my planner match up with my electronic calendar and […]
Copyright
Trying to understand how copyright works for your creative business? Then this post collection will help you understand what copyright is and how it can help you.
Can I use this quote on {fill in the blank}?
Probably the most common question I get is: Can I use this quote on {fill in the blank}? I wish I requested a dollar every time I answered it! Although then my bank teller might wonder why I started bringing in stacks of singles and that might be awkward. The serious answer to this question […]
Keep your eyes on your own page. Or how not to unintentionally be a copycat.
I knew that in my quest to cultivate a community here, I wanted to make sure this website was appealing to those I wanted to attract. I wanted my visitors to feel like a guest and want to sit down and pull up a chair in my virtual home. That these guests were easily able […]
Is it legal to trace source imagery?
This isn’t the post I intended to write this week. My editorial calendar has a post about visual inspiration and how these can lead to unintentional copying. How you can accidentally be a copycat. But then, Design*Sponge published an article about the ethics of copying and giving credit. If you haven’t read it yet, I […]
3 ways collaborations can deal with copyrights
The beginning of a collaboration is magical. Working together fills you both with excitement. Maybe you have been admiring each others work for ages and feel lucky that you get to team up. Your initial instinct is likely to jump in and get started. But I encourage you to have a couple tough conversations with your collaboration […]
Are we creating a joint work? A tough conversation to have before your next collaboration
The start of a collaboration is magical. The two of you are bouncing ideas off each other, getting inspired, and having lots of fun. Luckily, a good chunk of the time things stay that way and the collaboration goes off without a hitch. But sometimes problems crop up. Recently I got a call from a woman […]
You can’t use someone else’s website as your own
Earlier this year I got an email from a friend who works as a coach. She was in a tizzy, because she had gotten this odd email from a stranger asking her about the status of their project. At first she freaked out because she thought she had dropped the ball on something. She looked […]
Stolen content? Decide what you can, can’t & shouldn’t do
Last time, I gave you an overview of when you can, can’t, and maybe shouldn’t act when you find your content used without your permission. This time I want to give you the exact procedure that I use to make this decision. And it’s all based on four simple questions that you only have to answer […]
Confused about fair use? This visual process makes it easier
If you’ve ever dug into copyright issues, I’m sure that you’ve heard of the term fair use. And I’m sure if you started to research it, you left that research session with a spinning head and more confused than when you began. This is because fair use is one of the most complicated copyright topics. […]
What Copyright Management Information is and why you should care about it
In Copyright Basics, I quickly mentioned that if you placed a copyright notice on a digital file and it was removed, that you might have an additional reason to sue your infringer. Today, I want to dive into this law and how it can help you protect and enforce your copyrights. What is Copyright Management […]
Copyright Basics
We are going to start off by making sure we are all on the same page about some key aspects of copyright laws. Understanding these underlying principles will be a huge help as we move through the month. We’ve got a lot to cover, so let’s jump in. Why do copyright laws exist? One of […]
Who took this photo? How to perform a reverse image search
So you don’t get a nasty letter, you need to know who created that blog post or image so you can ask permission and give credit where credit is due. When you are trying to search backwards to find the source, these searches are called “reverse searches.” Text based reverse searches are pretty darn easy. You can […]