Copyrights Demystified

Copyrights

Many countries have implemented protective measures to curb violations in copyright policies. This is a way of protecting the original works both published and unpublished. The original works of artists, musicians and other literary authors are protected by means of copyright. The original owner has exclusive rights to reproduce copies and distribute the content.

Copyright can be defined as the authorisation given to the creator for a certain period of time. It pertains to any expressible form of a thought, idea or information that is discrete and fixed in a medium. Copyright in web is often misunderstood and dishonoured. This is merely because most of the bloggers are not aware of the rules which govern the copyright policies.

Before publishing the content, weblog owners should make a thorough study and guarantee that the content is lawful. There are many websites which provide information on various topics. Users should take the responsibility on the content published on their website and make sure it doesn’t breach copyright laws.

Bloggers usually feel elated when a visitor visits their website. They feel the rush when someone leaves comments, link to their posts or read feeds. This usually means that the reader values the content published on our website. But there are visitors who steal our content and claim to be their own.

So to avoid confusion and impart good ethics on the copyright policies, we have quoted a list which explains the key principles, resources and important facts which govern the copyright policies on web.

Things to remember:

1. The User’s content is protected under the copyright as soon as it is published on web. All web documents, images, source code, video, content are copyrighted by default.

2. This protection extends the lifetime of an author plus Seventy years and when it expired the work (content) becomes public.

3. There are no means to copyright an idea, especially the concrete ideas that are in your head. This is an article published on wikihow which tells you the procedure to copyright your idea. [http://www.wikihow.com/Copyright-an-Idea-](US). For instance, lifting the entire story of a plot would be a crime, instead you can borrow a single phrase if it is mandate to use in play. Copyright Essentials

4. Advertising protected content without the owner’s approval is illegal. It is always safe to consent the owner before making it public. [Myths Demystified]

5. Manipulation of visitor’s comments or deleting them should be avoided. Before allowing any user to comment on any site, proper rules should be framed to curb explicit comments through anonymous posts. [Important Blogger Laws]

6. It’s always recommended to take the author’s permission before translating the material. [What is Copyright?]

7. Avoid copying the whole article, when it is obligatory include a small portion in quotes to respect the author.

8. Copyrighted material can be used under “fair use” doctrine unless it has no commercial value.

9. Prohibiting copyrighted material doesn’t remove the copyright violations. Even if we delete the content after breaking the rules still it is considered to be an offence.

10. Every thing created after April 1, 1989 is copyrighted and protected by default even if the material has no copyright notice.

11. Copyright is never lost! Unless the owner explicitly gives away his rights. There are few old websites which have lost copyright protection. They are still considered to be risky in usage without the owner’s approval.

12. According to Berne Convention, the Copyright Convention is set for different media. A private content can go public… If an author dies, then his content can go public after 50 years plus his age. A photograph can go public after a minimum of 25 years from the day it was created and Cinematography has got a minimum of 50 years. This is applied to all the countries who have signed the Berne Convention.

13. Warning the visitors about the copyright violation will always fortify its protection. Apart from directly copying the content, there are many other ways to infringe someone’s copyright. For example, selling illegal rips of copyrighted media on a website or recreating a movie clip with animation, can infringe copyright.