Copyright: Are you worried about content theft?

[Carter-Ann]

I've never actually had any of my content stole (as far as I know...), but it does happen alot and I've come across tons of bloggers who have had to deal with having their work stolen.

Alot of the blogosphere has been built around somewhat ethical treatment of content. Copyrighting blogs, even small, personal blogs is now almost compulsory in order to protect yourself.

Does content theft worry you? Do you have a copyright info on your blog? Have you had any of your work stolen, and if so, what have you done about it?

[Joel McDonald]

It's my understanding that any written work produced is automatically copyrighted unless otherwise stated. One could officially copyright their material with specific terms, but it's not needed. Once made public, written work can be used by others within the guidelines of fair use.

[Carter-Ann]

This is true but some argue that it helps to put a notice up on you blog (Copyright button etc) to remind people and at best to show content thieves that you are aware of your copyright rights.

[Michele Martin]

I use a Creative Commons 2.5 license for my blog, which means:
You are free:
• to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work
• to make derivative works
Under the following conditions:
Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or
licensor.
Noncommercial. You may not use this work for commercial purposes.
Share Alike. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the
resulting work only under a license identical to this one.
• For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of
this work.
• Any of these conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright
holder.

For me, one of the beauties of the blogosphere is the ability to build up on each other's knowledge and information, so I don't believe in restrictive copyrights, but I do want to make sure that I receive credit for my work and that the only person making money off of what I create is me--unless I've given permission otherwise.

I've never had problems with people claiming my work as their own, that I know of anyway.

[Christine Martell]

I assume my work will be used elsewhere when I put it online. I do have copyright notices on my sites and everything else I produce, but they are only good if you are willing to enforce them. I've had websites for over 10 years, and I find the images are what get used most.

I used to have a site of digital artwork and people would write to me all the time and tell me how they had taken my work and used in for business cards, their websites, wallpaper etc.....thinking I would be just thrilled someone had liked it. I would write back thanking them, and then tell them about copyright. I would then give them permission to use the work, mainly because I know they weren't trying to do something wrong, they just didn't know, and really they were reaching out to me in a way they thought was supportive.

I am conscious of the value of my intellectual property, and consider it when making the decision of what to upload. I never use our best photography online, instead choosing things that are OK to get the point across but not up to the quality we use in our products. And I never load up anything but a small low resolution copy.

I do not know of an instance of someone taking my work intentionally for commercial gain, but I also don't spend a lot of time looking for it.

[Talia Carbis]

I think this is really smart Christine. I often search through flickr and places like that for images to use on different things, even wedding invitations.

I have a creative commons on all of my work, but it's just a bit of a 'scare tactic', you know? If someone used my content, I probably wouldn't know about it. I like to reference a lot when I write, if I'm writing an article type post. I think that this gives credit where credit is due, even if it's just where you got some information or an idea from. Kind of like writing an assignment for uni- references everywhere!

[Maya Norton]

Is the creative commons copyright completely free for usage? By that I mean, can I put a statement on my blog saying that it is copyrighted under that name with the link to the explanation and have it be that way?

To be completely honest with you, I would be furious if I found out someone was lifting my work without credit. I can see it happening for a lazy user unintentionally, but I am quite conscientious about these things myself and hold others to the same high standard. Sure, please quote me, but attribute it to me with a link to its source.

A great deal of the health of my blog (or any topical blog) relies on the fact that the author is providing high quality, relevant content to her readers. I want links and trackbacks and references to validate my efforts and get evidence that certain content is especially interesting. If work is stolen or misused, it usurps my efforts.

Of course there is the more likely scenario that someone reads your content and in writing about it herself, copies closely or doesn't cite appropriately. Christine's response here of respectfully asserting your rights and explaining the rationale seems to make the most sense.

Outright stealing, which I think is what you are asking about, is another issue entirely. What does it actually mean to say that your content is copyrighted? It's not as if you are going to set a cyber lawyer on someone, although there are steps you could take to address the situation through their host or in public ways.

Hope your question stays theoretical.

Maya

[Michele Martin]

Hi Maya--yes, Creative Commons is completely free. You just go to their site and pick out the kind of license you want and then it will give you the code to copy and paste into your site.

[Suzanne]

Havent really thought about it, No, No, NA :)

Not trying to hijack, but I had a weird comment on my edublog yesterday, that might relate to this topic. I'm not sure wether to approve it or not. It links back to a blog called wikipedia, quotes a sentence from my blog, and then links straight back to my blog. http://wikipedia.wpbloggers.com/?p=999 It has a lot of advertising on the site, which seems to be the only point of the excercise. And when I look back through the other posts, they are all the same structure, and the quote it uses seems to often have the word wikipedia in it (mine did). SO, are they stealing my content, sort of, for advertising? And if so, does it matter, as I might get extra traffic out of it?

[Michele Martin]

Hi Suzanne--that's a Spam blog or "scraper site" set up to draw users to the site in the hopes that they'll click on one of the ads so that the owner can earn AdSense $$. I would consider it stealing, but not in the same way as someone who's trying to pass off your work as their own. This is more using your work to earn money for the person, although I'm not sure that it's terribly successful.

[Carter-Ann]

Ugh, I've had one these sites steal some of my stuff. The problem is that since they often link back to your original post, it's hard to get completely bent out of shape. But I find this form of spamming really upsetting.

[Suzanne]

ha, now my reply is all the way down here, my response doesnt make sense. I was replying to all of Anne's questions in my littany of no's up there :)

Thanks guys. That's what I figured it was. I deleted the comment.

[Laura Whitehead]

I was discussing this at the weekend on Twitter, lots of my articles seem to being 'scraped' recently. I delete any comments with these links on, and just have to take a deep breath and accept that sites like this exist.