Reader Q&A: Using Other People’s Work 11 December 2007

Question: "If I come across an article that I’d like to use, is it OK to copy it and post it on my website as long as I give credit to the author?"
– by email

Answer: No, apart from the ethics involved, you could encounter a number of copyright-infringement legalities. You really must get permission from the author or source first. They’ll most likely say yes and give you a resource box to include with the article. Best to be safe than sorry, I say.

That said, there are times when an article will be published with a ‘reprint’ box that describes how to use the article for free, providing the author byline or source and any copyright/reprint notices are left intact. Like with the article above.

Got a burning question you want answered? Email it to me and I’ll try to answer it sometime soon.

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Free Legal Advice for Creatives 7 December 2007

A new ‘Law for the Arts’ service has been launched by the Legal Advice Centre (LAC) at Queen Mary, University of London. It offers free legal advice to those working in the creative industries on issues such as copyright and trademarks. 

For further information, visit: the LAC website.
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Jaws Has Nothing on Facebook 18 October 2007

Do you have – or have you thought about having – a profile on social-networking sites such as MySpace and FaceBook? Then you might want to think again before jumping in the water…

Blogger ‘Legal Andrew’ has published a fascinating (and, frankly, unnerving) take on the T&Cs found at the FaceBook website.

Once you are on FaceBook, you are in its Jaws-like grip of death insofar as your rights are concerned…

Essentially, you are ‘signing’ away your intellectual property rights as well as your rights to privacy and the use (or misuse) of any personal data you provide.

I haven’t decided (yet) to pull my entire profile from the site, but I have pulled a substantial amount of my copyrighted content. I’ll bide my time with the rest of it and watch with interest if anyone bothers to tackle the powers at FaceBook or a similar site (MySpace springs to mind).

In the meantime, my advice: ALWAYS read the small print and make sure you are comfortable with it before you sign up to or publish personal data/content on Web 2.0.

Further reading:

• “Why I stopped using Facebook”

• “Facebook – innocent social networking website, or high tech spy network?”

• BBC news item on tracking within social networking

• “Insider threat is greater than you might think”

• “Facebook shrugs off privacy fears with plan for targeted advertising”

• “Facebook says you should not expect privacy
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Want to use this in your ezine, blog or website? No problem! Just let me know. I’ll send you a short resource box/bio to include at the end of the article.

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