Blog Responsibly: Respect Copyright

Even though the Internet has been around for several decades, it's still a new and evolving industry. Beginning with the dot-com boom in the '90s, people and businesses realized that the Internet was useful and lucrative. Then, we realized that this new business left us with a number of legal loopholes. Napster is one of the first and most publicized examples of the problems that the Internet created. The law just couldn't keep up, and when it did, loopholes still existed. To some extent, the law still hasn't caught up. This is just what happens when a new field encourages boundless innovation. On the Internet and through social media, your imagination is free to invent, create, and keep creating.

If you're a reader of Just Means, you very well know that blogging is one field of the Internet that has taken off. Blogs are powerful professional tools and they also enable people to express themselves personally. With blogs, even the lines between professional and personal become blurred. With a strategic plan, it's possible to make your blogging lucrative through advertising and content syndication.

This article is not an attempt to teach you how to turn your blog into a business. Instead, the post exists to help you make more responsible decisions if you're thinking of going commercial. Beyond the obvious that you may get caught for violating image copyright law, you should also understand the rationale behind copyright.

If you're a commercial blogger, you may find it easy to pull a photo from a basic Google image search. You may not know that you may -- unknowingly-- be violating copyright law. In some instances, you may get away with including an attribution for your image,  but you shouldn't count on it. As a blogger, you need to understand your image source's terms and conditions. Each source is different, but it's worth the extra five minutes to respect your source's policies. Think about it: as a writer, you would be unhappy if someone used your work for profit without compensating you. Photographers and graphic artists are much the same way: they want and deserve to be compensated for their work, especially if it's helping you make money.

So what are some small steps worth taking for more responsible blogging?

1) Ask permission when you want to use someone's image. You might not always need to pay royalties, so you'll still get to use the image for free.

2) Don't assume that a website owns the rights to an image.  Try to find the original source of an image instead of making assumptions.

3) Use images and artwork with a Creative Commons license, but make sure that you include an attribution.

4) Use content from the Wikimedia Foundation, but double check the license just in case. Certain content from Wikipedia and Wikimedia are available for free. Try this source especially if you're writing about a person.

These steps might be a little bit of work, but you'll find yourself in a routine sooner rather than later. Most of all, remember that we aren't always perfect. Mistakes may happen, but all we can do is our best.

Photo Credit.