Showing posts with label copyright. Show all posts
Showing posts with label copyright. Show all posts

Thursday, 29 July 2010

What Web Writers Want You to Know About Online Sharing

I started my morning having to deal with not one, but two, copyright violations. Two different individuals had "borrowed" entire articles I wrote and republished them without my permission. Only they weren't "borrowing" anything. They had committed theft.

There are some people out on the web who intentionally steal others' work, but I have come to believe a lot of copyright violation is due to laziness, ignorance of how copyright works, and confusing copyright with plagiarism. I'm sorry to say I have no miracle cures to offer for laziness, but I hope I can help to clear up the confusion around copyright here.

What is copyright?
There are a good number of sites that explain copyright in detail, so I'm not going to do that. What I will do is simplify it. At the most basic level, copyright is the right of an author to determine under what circumstances a work will be copied.

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Doing Everything But Writing

It's been one of those days when I got very little writing done. I spent my morning dealing with kids and copyright infringements, and preparing for our day trip tomorrow. Writers quickly learn that our work consists of more  than writing. There is also planning, researching, networking, promoting and protecting our work. Most times I enjoy taking a break from writing to do something a little different, but chasing down copyright violations is not a favourite task.

The afternoon saw some actual writing get done, but there were interruptions for a number of reasons. One was a very pleasant one: a call from my daughter. She has been calling in the evening after the cadets get liberty, but today apparently there was a career fair at the camp and once she had seen all the kiosques that interested her she was allowed free time. We will be getting up at an absolutely ungodly hour to drive up for her graduation parade in the morning, but nothing could keep me from being there. We are so proud of her!

I managed to get one piece written today, and I hope both writers and their readers will find it helpful. I also want to say how grateful I am to Mohamed, who took care of one of the copyright violations for me as soon as he read my email. I have to believe that most of  the wrongs done in the world are a matter of ignorance. Educating ourselves allows us to choose the right, more often.