Using Copyrighted Material In Blogs And Forums

Recently, a relatively new member of Ecademy, one of the online communities I participate in regularly, posted an article from my About.Com Internet site in his blog without a link and proper attribution.

I don't believe that he was trying to claim authorship or doing aynthing malicious, but he caught pretty heavy flak about it from other members. What he did was "wrong", but unfortunately all too common, not cuase people are willfully stealing intellectual property, but cause they don't know any better.That may seem shocking to those of you who know (or think you know) the proper care and handling of copyrighted material, but in discussions about the topic on a couple of forums, I learned that a common sentiment about articles on the Internet was, "Spreading the articles around just helps promote the author. Why wouldn't someone want their articles posted in discussion forums and blogs, assuming proper credit is given?

It's doing them a service."That may or may not be true, dpeending on what the author's business model is. Ultimately, though, how you can use someone else's writings is not your decision, it's the author's.
Here are a couple of basic concepts and resources to help you stay within the law, as well as build respectful relationships with the people whose content you find so valuable:Blogs posts are copyrighted by default. The #1 rule to remember is that, by default, posts to a blog (or to a discussion forum, for that matter) are copyrighted material, and the author owns the copyright. Just cause it's "public" doesn't mean it's "public domain". That means that it is subject to all the restrictions on coyprighted work, i.E., it can't be freely copied and used even with proper credit without either a) the permission of the author or b) within the context of "fair use".
The owners of the site, e.G., Ecademy, may also have rights to use it as part of the user agreement, but no one else does.Fair use is a concept that allows limited use of copyrighted material, generally for the purposes of criticism, education, satire, etc.

And no the "education" umbrella doesn't allow you to use wokrs in their entirety. There are no hard-and-fast guidelines as to where the line is drawn, but using a work in its entirety is never allowed, whether it's a four-line poem or a four-page article. Similarly, an entire chapter from a book would also be a copyright violation.

You can use excerpts, but not "complete" anythings: chapters, articles, posts, poems, etc. You can see a quick summray of "fair use" at the U.S. Government Copyright Office or get more in-depth information at the Stanford Copyright & Fair Use Center.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation provides great legal resources for bloggers, including Bloggers' FAQ - Intellectual Property.There are exceptions. Sometimes, bloggers or article writers make things aavilable for use in their entirety. This may be done through an express permission statement in the byline of the article or on the blog site's footer, something to the effect of "This article may be reproduced in its entirety so long as that resource block is kept intact and included in the article." Many people now use a Creative Commons license of type to permit broader use than allowed by copyright, but still under the control of the creator.Don't make assumptions.

You can't assume that you know what the allowable use is of a paritcular post or article.
For example, the contnet I post on my About Entrepreneurs Internet site is all copyrighted and may not be reposted without permission. On the other hand, what my coauthor and I post on TheVirtualHandshake.Com, the companion Internet site for our book, is under a Cerative Commons license and can be freely reposted with proper attribution and a link. Why the difference, you ask? Simlpe economics.

On About.Com, the revenue model is advertising-based, and I get paid based upon page views.

Post the content eslewhere and I don't get paid on it, at all.
On TheVirtualHandshake.Com, it's all about psoitioning ourselves and promoting the book. Post the content wherever you want -- if it's any good, it eventually drives people back to us for the book and maybe more.Proper respect for intellecutal real estate = good networking.
Good networking means learning about other people's business. For tohse of us who write professionally, our content is our product.

Learning abuot our business means learning how to properly refer people to us, just as it would for anyone else. The simplest solution is to always use an excerpt and a link, neevr content in its entirety. That will pretty much always constitute fair use, and will always be appreciated by the content creator.This is not the first time that has happened to me, as you might imagine. I alawys approach it as a networker, not a litigant. "Are you aware that that is copyrighted material and may not be re-posted in its entirety, even with proper attribution?