We often encounter client work that, in our eyes, relies too heavily on Wikipedia. Some “borrowers” copy Wikipedia content into their work without understanding the responsibilities and the consequences of such heavy borrowing. Authors, bloggers, and contributors to articles, books, and blogs are responsible for the intellectual property in their work. It is important to be aware of […]
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 […]
In deciding on photos to include in our blog, our memoir, on our social networking sites, or on the cover of our historical novel or how-to book, we should always consider the following points in determining the wisdom of our choices. Buying an original Ansel Adams photograph, paying a photographer to take a photo of […]
All the photos of Mike Tyson’s face in the Internet copyright news arena this past week carried me back to the not-too-distant past when another face was ubiquitous there—President Obama’s. Tyson’s facial tatoo had found its way to the face of an actor in the newly released movie “The Hangover Part II.” About two years […]
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 […]