A common point of confusion for our publishing clients is trademark vs copyright. Most people seem to know that patents, another type of intellectual property (IP), cover inventions, but most do not know what protections are afforded by copyright and trademark. Both trademarks and copyrighted works are IP assets that are offered protection in the U.S. Constitution, but they differ significantly. […]
How does the concept of substantial similarities relate to copyright infringement? When we hear that only the expression of an idea and not the idea itself can lead to an infringement claim, we should use caution in assuming that only direct quotes or close paraphrasing will get us in trouble. We may mistakenly think, “Oh […]
Animal copyrights ownership: a nature photographer and self-publisher vs. a crested macaque. Animal copyrights is one of the more interesting copyright court cases of late. In September 2015 PETA filed a copyright infringement suit in a California federal court asking that Naruto, a crested macaque, be declared the copyright owner of a selfie he took in […]
Considering quoting song lyrics in your book? A primary question to consider when quoting song lyrics is the importance of the lyrics to your message. If they are important, do you need permission from their copyright owners to use them in your work? It is often wise to clear copyright on even a line or two of song […]
Territories – Its Place in Copyright Compliance As Sally Ride once said, “All adventures, especially into new territory, are scary.” If you have recently entered the publishing business, possibly as a self-publisher, a key decision you will have to make is in which territories you plan to distribute your works. Questions regarding sales and distribution can be […]
What part does attribution play in publishing? Whether you are blogging, creating an ebook, or publishing a print book, it’s important to know something about attribution. When you give attribution to a work you are giving the creator the credit he/she is due. We have spoken often before in this blog about the need for […]
Derivatives must be transformative U.S. Copyright Law is all about protecting creators’ works in order to offer incentive to these creators so that they keep on producing works for the good of society. So it seems that building on an existing work such as a play, poem, song, or film would be blessed in the eyes […]
Careful review of Terms of Use (TOU) may keep you from infringing on the copyrights of others, as we discussed in Part I. In this part we will discuss why it is important to know that you can use TOUs to protect your own work from abuse by others. If you were contributing to a print work, you […]
This week we will cover how Terms of Use (TOU), sometimes called Terms of Service (TOS), statements can affect your legal use of the copyrighted works of others. Next week we will talk about how you can use TOS to control other’s use of your own work. If you are using other people’s stuff in […]
Image Resolution We often have clients who want to include images of various sorts in their book. And they have found great images on the Internet that exactly convey what they intend in their book, but they don’t realize that ownership and image resolution are two important questions to be asked. The first question we […]