Back to Basics: Blogging and Copyright Infringement
Anyone who works with content has to take into copyright into consideration. Bloggers, content creators, copywriters, and content marketers all have to refer to and use the work of others. That is all part of the job, and in itself, there is nothing wrong with that.
The problem arises when copyright isn’t respected, whether knowingly or unwittingly.
Sad to say, while the concept of copyright is known to everyone (or at least should be known), there are still numerous cases of infringements. This may stem from lack of knowledge of copyright laws, do it’s important to go back to the basics and look at blog copyright infringement and how you can avoid it.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- How much information do you get from other people’s articles?
- Do you use chunks of text from them? If so, do you ask for permission and do you quote your sources?
- Where do you get images for your posts?
- Do you check if they are free to use without attribution, free to use with attribution, if you have to ask for permission, or if you have to buy them?
- Do you check if you are allowed to edit/create something else using the original material?
These are the main things you need to understand in order to make sure you don’t get in trouble because of copyright infringement. But there is more to copyright law than the above.
Related: The 3 Most Common Copyright Mistakes Bloggers Make
If you want to avoid the hassle – and legal and financial consequences – of infringing on someone else’s copyright, then you ought to understand, at the very least, the basics of copyright law.
The infographic below will help you with that, but to make things easier and clearer for you, here are the main tips you need to know to avoid copyright infringement.
- Your safest best is to use Creative Commons images as much as you can.
- When you’re not sure about the license of the material you want to use, first as for permission. Don’t shoot first and apologize later.
How much do you know about copyright? How important is it when you write and publish a blog post? Have you had trouble with copyright before? Let us know in the comments, and share your tips as well.