Copyright Content

Copyright Content 

You’ll take a lot more from the Old Media than just lessons on consistency, however.  If you have a news blog, you’ll take parts of stories that will set up your own commentary.  A technology blog may quote articles and experts speaking in interviews you did not give.  In other words, unless you’ll be presenting completely original work on your blog, you’ll have to deal with basic issues of copyright.  This book is not a legal guide, and we recommend you familiarize yourself with the basic issues of copyright before you copy another’s material - there are some very good blogs which cover the issue – but there are a few principles that can help you lay the foundations of a safe and legal Blog Empire.

The first issue is attribution.  The blog owner must always attribute the work of others to them and not to himself, even by default.  That means interviews, passages, and photographs found online are the property of others and their rights should be respected.  If you quote a passage of text, make sure you tell whence it originated (either through a link or a description) and be sure not to claim it for your own.

The second issue is “fair use.”  Americans may copy and distribute the work of others under the doctrine of “fair use” under certain legally-defined terms.  This generally includes short passages, and certainly includes passages that the user is commenting on.  For news and technology blogs, copyright is not as much of an issue as for other blogs.

However, if your blog is an art blog, these issues become complex enough that seeking competent legal counsel is a must.  Copyright law does not allow you to distribute, for example, .MP3 files from your favorite bands or the photography of your favorite artist just because you have the technical know-how to copy and upload them.

Also remember that copyright laws and issue differ from nation to nation.  Many people believe that they can get away with infringing the intellectual and artistic rights of others because the web is international.  However, as your blog is meant to been viewed by millions, you should respect copyright and work within your nation’s applicable laws if for no other reason than that your reputation as an honest business will depend upon it.