Marking Your Online Territory

Filed in archive Business Tips on August 25, 2009

© no3rdw



Since the free exchange of information on the internet begin, the concept of intellectual property became fuzzy. What constitutes plagiarism? What if my content gets stolen? How do I stay protected? While what the government can and can't control online is still being debated (and change depending on your country) its next to impossible for any entity to have complete control over what happens in the digital space.

So there are two big questions we need to answer:

How do I protect my property?

How do I properly give credit to someone else?

First let's discuss protection. Any content you put on the internet can be seen by thousands of people, therefore it can be easily stolen. Jonathan Bailey of Plagiarism Today discusses a number of ways to find and stop plagiarists. Once you put an idea into a tangible form, its copyrighted. However, work that is registered gives you far more protection. The upside is, most respected blog and websites do give credit, at least with a link. Jonathan explains what to do if they don't.

Of course reproduction of your work (with the right credit) can be a good thing. It can drive traffic and business. That's where things like a Creative Commons License comes in (specific rules for the UK here). A CC license is a special kind of copyright that allows others to use or build on your work with proper attribution. Its a good idea to consider Creative Commons if you are a blogger or post photos and work to social sites like Flickr or even Facebook.

If you do want to use someone else's work, be sure to give proper credit. If its merely a news article, a link will often suffice. But the more information you use, the more credit you should give (name, website, link, etc.) Images are harder. Checking for CC licenses will tell you what you can and can't use.

Copying may be the highest form of flattery, but best to give credit where credit's due.

Have you ever had work stolen? What did you do to get it back?