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Wikipedia a springboard, not a crutch

Wikipedia a springboard, not a crutch

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 […]

Part IV: Secondary Sources – Twiddling Y

Part IV: Secondary Sources – Twiddling Your Thumbs

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 […]

Part II: Secondary Sources – Twiddling Y

Part II: Secondary Sources – Twiddling Your Thumbs

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 […]

Consider the Source—Vine or Equine

As writers, we have been taught that in researching for our work,  we should, whenever possible, go to the original or primary source—to get our information straight from the horse’s mouth so to speak.  Because many times this activity is a time sucker, we choose a less demanding path. We get it through the grapevine.  In other words, we […]