For the last three weeks we have been covering the use of secondary sources. We talked about avoiding a halt in production of our work or a DMCA takedown notice due to an unwise use of secondary sources. We talked about how and where to look for items in copied content that may be from […]
More and more, we are seeing our own clients inadvertently make a use of secondary sources that constitutes infringement. This occurs most often today in uses of material obtained from websites, blogs, and aggregators. Publishing content from the Huffington Post, photos taken from Pinterest, text taken from Facts on File, and still images taken from […]
For independent publishers doing our own publicity, there are so many options to choose from that even making a choice of what activity to devote our valuable time to is difficult. One activity that appeals to many authors in today’s Internet world is making our own video in order to draw readers into the realm […]
We creatives know there is nothing new under the sun. We know that art and literature thrive, in part, because creatives in these fields have so much wonderful work from which they may glean ideas for new works. And there is much public domain content that can be used to legally create derivatives. A derivative work is […]
We can copy and publish from any edition of the Bible, right? The Bible is in the public domain, right? After all, it’s message belongs to all of us and is very old. What about Les Miserables? Victor Hugo died over 125 years ago. We couldn’t possibly be infringing copyright if we copy excerpts from these […]
Many of my clients have a healthy respect for copyright. They understand the importance of clearing copyright. They appreciate the need for asking permission when using others’ works that are in the form of texts or images. But some have trouble with the concept of fictional characters being protected by copyright. So many of these […]