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Image Source: opensource.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n If you’re not creating content, you don’t exist on the internet. Tweets, images, blog posts, comments, your Facebook posts – these are all content.\u00a0Marketers know that when done correctly, content marketing<\/a> can be a valuable marketing channel<\/a>. As I wrote previously<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cContent marketing\u201d refers to creating information (content) that has value to others. The creator of the content ultimately wants to sell a product or service to prospective buyers<\/a> who benefit from the content, but the goal of content marketing is rarely to sell directly. Instead, the goal of content marketing is to encourage people to read and perhaps engage with the content, and to begin developing a relationship with the person or entity that created that content.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n There are many terrific guides about content marketing, including this one<\/a> from Kissmetrics. But before you rush to share\u00a0another image or write your next blog post, consider this: content marketing can have many\u00a0serious<\/span> legal consequences.\u00a0If done improperly, marketers can violate copyright law and expose themselves, their employers, and their clients to substantial legal risk, money damages and embarrassment.<\/p>\n I created this guide to help marketers understand the basics of copyright law. I know a bit about the subject: I received my law degree 21 years ago. Before founding crowdSPRING<\/a>, I was a trial attorney focusing on complex commercial and intellectual property litigation.<\/p>\n If you have a question that isn’t answered below, please leave a comment and I’ll consider revising the guide to include your question (and an answer).<\/p>\n Copyright<\/a> is a form of legal protection provided to those who create original works. Under the 1976 U.S. Copyright Act, the copyright owner has the exclusive right to reproduce, adapt, distribute, publicly perform and publicly display the work. Any or all of these rights can be licensed, sold or donated to another party. You\u00a0do not need to register a work with the U.S. Copyright Office for it to be automatically protected by copyright law (registration does have benefits – see “What can you do if someone else is using your\u00a0content?” Q&A below).<\/p>\n Let’s take a look at these rights in more detail.<\/p>\n The copyright owner has the right to reproduction<\/strong>. This gives the copyright owner control\u00a0over who can or cannot reproduce their work. If someone copied this guide\u00a0and pasted it on their own site\u00a0without my permission, that would violate my copyright.<\/p>\n The copyright owner has the right to derivation<\/strong>. This gives the copyright owner control\u00a0over who can or cannot make derivative works. If you take a screenshot of \u00a0part of an image, or translate this post into another language and publish it without permission,that would violate my copyright.<\/p>\n The copyright owner has the right to distribution<\/strong>. This gives the copyright owner control over\u00a0who can or cannot share their work, including sale, import\/export, and commercial trade. If you share this guide as part of an eBook, for example, without permission,that would violate my copyright.<\/p>\n The copyright owner has the right to public display<\/strong>. This gives the copyright owner control over\u00a0who can or cannot post their works publicly, including online. If you share someone else\u2019s work without permission in public, including online, that would be a copyright violation.<\/p>\n The copyright owner has the right to sell, transfer, or license their rights<\/strong>. This gives the copyright owner the right to\u00a0legally appoint someone else as the copyright holder or to grant someone else permission to use the work.<\/p>\n Copyright laws around the world can differ in significant ways. Most countries are signatories to various international treaties and agreements governing copyright protection, such as the Berne Convention<\/a>. Under the Berne Convention, if your work is protected by copyright in your own country, then your work is protected by copyright in every other country that signed the Berne Copyright Convention.<\/p>\nWhat is Copyright?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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