I know, that title sounds like a cruel joke. Those who have been reading this blog for awhile know we sometimes post something fun on Fridays around here, and "copyright infringement," isn't normally a lot of fun to talk about, but hang with me just a moment.
Did you know you can copyright using the word "Friday" 24 times in a song?
Ever since 13 year old Rebecca Black sang a song written for her by a company paid to help teens produce videos (mostly just for fun), and it somehow went viral, there has been no shortage of jokes and spoof songs about Friday being the day after Thursday - right before the weekend. The lyrics are only slightly more enlightening than the old "Mairzy Doats" song, and are not nearly as clever, as there is NO double meaning - the song is literally all about Friday and the where it is placed in the weekly line-up.
But now that there is money involved, this poor girl's parent are fighting with the "record label," (those are finger quotes) over who has the copyright to the song. She didn't write it, but she has the rights to the recording, and the lyrics would be pretty useless without her having recorded it, and the argument goes round and round. The Hollywood reporter has a thorough report on the topic HERE.
So this brings us to the point that relates to us, which is that we, as bloggers, webmasters, and social networkers can seriously never afford to forget how important copyright law is - no matter how silly or insignificant the topic might seem. Unless you're actually re-selling the content (e.g. writing a book, or printing a quote on a T-Shirt to sell), most of what we do on our blogs and websites is usually covered legally under the "fair use" laws. However, proving such in court can be very expensive in a legal battle, so choose your battles wisely. In most cases, it is wise to have a policy to immediate take down (as YouTube has done) any content that is not owned by the webmaster of the policy upon the request of the owner. In all of my years of blogging, I've only had to do this twice (not on this blog). In one case, I had quoted someone who had second thoughts about her employer seeing what she had written elsewhere online, and she was contacting every blog which had reprinted it to try to cover her tracks. In another case, I had used material I believed belonged to a friend, and unwittingly stepped into a flame war between that friend and someone else. In both cases, I was well within my "rights" as a blogger, but the fight simply wasn't worth it, and I immediately took the material down, and confirmed I had done so to the requestor with an apology for the inconvenience. I never heard from either of them again. Had I stood my ground, and insisted on my "rights," the story might have ended quite badly.
The same is the case with YouTube and the Friday video, except in their case, they have deep pockets, and are A LOT more likely to be sued than I ever would be. My guess is that all of this will be resolved and the video will be back up very quickly. As Aaron Moss asked in The Hollywood Reporter link above, "[W]ho would admit to liking this song, let alone owning it?"
Oh, yes, I promised you some Friday Fun, did I not? Here's Team Coco with the song that came before Friday:
Jennifer Pointer (e-mail) is in Tulsa, OK. She promotes a simple, a low-tech approach to effective online profile management, search engine optimization and social networking.
Comments are a great way to develop interaction with readers, but if you honestly do not have the time to moderate the comments and respond to your readers, you may want to consider closing the comments altogether.
Decide who can comment.
Your website or blogging software should allow you to adjust the security settings to determine who is allowed to leave comments on your blog, and which comments must first be approved by an administrator before being displayed publicly. If your blog content is highly controversial, or if you have been experiencing a problem with "troublemakers," you may want to have an administrator approve all comments before posting. If you haven't had any serious trouble, but you want to prevent spam, and monitor "new" commenters, you might select the option which requires a comment to have one approved comment prior to allowing the remainder of their comments to be posted without moderation.
Decide what is acceptable and unacceptable in your comment section, and make this clear to your readers.
If you have a very active comment section, you might consider having a "comment policy," posted on your site, spelling out clearly what type of comments are encouraged, and which ones are not allowed. Perhaps you will have rules about profanity, or personal attacks. I strongly suggest you proactively make it clear to your readers that you reserve the right to edit or delete any comment.
Include a disclaimer.
If you have a comment policy, you may also consider having a comment disclaimer which basically makes it clear that the comments allowed to remain on your site do not necessarily reflect your views.
Jennifer Pointer (e-mail) is a trainer and tech writer in Tulsa, OK. She promotes a simple, a low-tech approach to effective online profile management, search engine optimization and social networking. Her weakness is the mocha frappuccino.
Blogging without a Blog's Barbara Swafford, who refers to blogging etiquette as the "unwritten rules" of blogging, suggests writing original articles, and not posting until you actually have something to write:
"Putting a new spin on a subject is one thing, but downright copying someone else’s ideas is not right."
Barbara has 13 other "unwritten rules," for bloggers, many of which are suggestions for appropriately using the comment sections of your blog and other blogs. Be sure to check it out, here, and also take a look at the comment section on that post for great commentary.
Suite101's Zona Marie Tan has 16 general dos and don'ts of the blogosphere, for bloggers, commenters and both. She emphasizes the importance of expressing an opinion respectfully, and properly attributing sources. She also mentions hotlinking:
"Don’t steal bandwidth. If you are going to use an image off a blog, save it on to your own image hosting site. It’s rude to copy the image source and link it directly to your own blog."
BloggingTips' Deborah Ng writes, "The rules are quite simple," recounting an unpleasant blogging experience she had and how it could have been prevented. Among her suggestions, she provides these words of wisdom:
"Don’t forget, everything you write is on display for the world to see. If you don’t want to the world knowing something, don’t post it. Many employers now Google potential employees. If you’re showing off your lingerie or ranting about your previous boss, these won’t bode well in your favor."
CyberJournalist offers A Bloggers' Code of Ethics, advocating for honesty, fairness, respect, and accountability in blogging. Part of being accountable, this poster writes, is the committment to:
"Admit mistakes and correct them promptly."
Other than correcting obvious typos and formatting errors, it is always better to amend blog posts with an "updated" or "corrected," (or similar notation). Trying to correct mistakes or regrets by covering them up can easily be discovered in the search engine cache, and will harm the integrity and reputation of the blogger.
Jennifer Pointer (e-mail) is a trainer and tech writer in Tulsa, OK. She promotes a simple, a low-tech approach to effective online profile management, search engine optimization and social networking. Her weakness is the mocha frappuccino.
As we discussed yesterday, we are bloggers, and readers of blogs, and we often find quotes, videos, photos, cartoons, etc., on the web that we would like to share on our own blogs. How do we know what is okay to share, without violating copyright and plagiarism laws? Yesterday, we discussed Fair Use laws. Today, let's talk about some of the "unwritten" rules of conduct that will keep us in the good graces of the blogging community, and hopefully prevent anyone from needing or wanting to resort to legal action.
Cartoons are covered under fair use laws for bloggers. I would recommending not using more than one or two of any artist's cartoons, however, without the express permission of that author, and always give credit by including the web address of the cartoonist, if available. Also, consider searching for free cartoons online, which you are allowed to publish, but always follow the instructions of the host site regarding crediting and posting.
Photos, Images
Again, photos and images are general covered under "fair use" laws, but it is important to give credit to the photographer or artist if known. Never "hotlink," (use the photo from the host site), but instead upload the photo to your own site or photo-sharing site.
Quotes
Most bloggers don't mind if you (accurately) quote them online, as long as you link back to their site. Don't "scrape," (copy and paste the entire post without permission), however. A good rule of thumb is to use no more than 10% of the original post when quoting.
Videos
Most videographers and vloggers (video-bloggers) will provide an "embed code," to encourage bloggers and websites to use their videos. This embed code allows the video to remain on the original host site for stats tracking. If the video does not have an embed code, it's best to simply link to the video.
In all cases in which you are using copyrighted material, or using the work of others, look for opportunities to network by linking to the original source of the material. It is better to err on the side of over-attribution then under-attribution. Follow this simple guideline, and you are likely to avoid plagiarism, and stay out of trouble.
Tomorrow, we'll discuss more general blogging etiquette.
Jennifer Pointer (e-mail) is a trainer and tech writer in Tulsa, OK. She promotes a simple, a low-tech approach to effective online profile management, search engine optimization and social networking. Her weakness is the mocha frappuccino.
As bloggers, and readers of blogs, we often find quotes, videos, photos, cartoons, etc., on the web that we would like to share on our own blogs. How do we know what is okay to share, without violating copyright and plagiarism laws? We're going to talk about that this week. Today, let's start with the blogger's best legal friend: Fair Use.
Fair Use Law basically allows you as a blogger to use copyrighted material on your blog as long as you are not re-selling the material, and as long as you are using material strictly for informational or educational purposes. For example, it is okay to quote from another blogger (without first obtaining perission) to either critique the information in that blog post or to use it to help make a point. It is not okay for you to take a quote from another blogger, stick it on a T-Shirt and sell it, without that blogger's express permission. Here are the four instances which the U.S. Copyright Office lists as "fair use":
The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
The nature of the copyrighted work
The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work
Keep in mind that this "Fair Use," law will not keep you from getting sued. It will just help you in case you do get sued, but this process might still be very expensive, in terms of attorney fees. We are going to talk more this week about blogger etiquette that can help prevent you from making other bloggers and webmasters angry enough to consider taking legal action. For starters, however, in regard to "fair use," I recommend using a "Fair Use Disclaimer" somewhere on your site, and making it clear that you will gladly remove any copyrighted material at the request of the copyright owner. Just because you have (probably) have a legal right to use something on your website does not mean it's always a good idea to do so.
Jennifer Pointer (e-mail) is a trainer and tech writer in Tulsa, OK. She promotes a simple, a low-tech approach to effective online profile management, search engine optimization and social networking. Her weakness is the mocha frappuccino.
Jennifer Pointer (
