I am relatively new to blogging and notice that some sites use wording to include "copyright". Is this something all bloggers should state or is it a personal agenda?
This Post was written by Heather from htttp://www.theculinarychase.blogspot.com
8 comments:
Anonymous
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I am very new to blogging. I am wondering the same thing myself. Is there some FAQ on this? Maybe I haven't searched hard enough but a few articles that I've been reading on Blogger didn't mention anything of this sort.
Simply put, copyright is a statement by the author of a work (text, graphics, and many other types of creative stuff) of their ownership. I'm not an attorney -- nor do I play one on the blogosphere -- but it's my understanding that you don't have to claim copyright in order to retain authorship.
Still, I find copyright claims a useful reminder to people who might poach my content that I take my authorship rights seriously. We copyright the blog as a whole (in the footer), and place a copyright notice "(C)2006 AEC" in the ALT text of all my blog photos.
The bigger issue about copyrights is that if you copy - verbatim, word for word - a recipe from a cookbook or other copyrighted source, you've violated THEIR copyrights.
AK, that is oversimplification of a complex subject. Of course as a matter of ethics a source should be attributed, but there is a copyright principal called fair use - there are many instances (scholarly writing, reviews, parody, satire, etc. etc. etc.) in which it is permissible to make limited use of copyrighted material. I am a lawyer but I should emphasize that I'm speaking as a blogger here: I would urge people to learn about their rights and the rights of others rather than avoid blogging about something altogether. What constitues "fair use" and what constitutes "limited use" are but two of the many, many grey areas of copyright, and in my experience these concepts do not lend themselves to quite such a concise summary.
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8 comments:
I am very new to blogging. I am wondering the same thing myself. Is there some FAQ on this? Maybe I haven't searched hard enough but a few articles that I've been reading on Blogger didn't mention anything of this sort.
Simply put, copyright is a statement by the author of a work (text, graphics, and many other types of creative stuff) of their ownership. I'm not an attorney -- nor do I play one on the blogosphere -- but it's my understanding that you don't have to claim copyright in order to retain authorship.
From Wikipedia: >>Use of a copyright notice — consisting of the letter C inside of a circle (that is, "©"), the abbreviation "Copr.", or the word "Copyright", followed by the year of the first publication of the work and the name of the copyright holder — was part of previous United States statutory requirements. (Note that the letter C inside of parentheses ("(c)") has never been an officially recognized designator.) But since 1989, when the U.S. adhered to the Berne Convention, the use of copyright notices has become optional to claim copyright, as the Berne Convention makes copyright automatic.<<
Still, I find copyright claims a useful reminder to people who might poach my content that I take my authorship rights seriously. We copyright the blog as a whole (in the footer), and place a copyright notice "(C)2006 AEC" in the ALT text of all my blog photos.
There are loads of helpful links on the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts website.
Thanks for your help and information Anita and Tiny Banquet Committee! :)
Cheers,
Heather
The bigger issue about copyrights is that if you copy - verbatim, word for word - a recipe from a cookbook or other copyrighted source, you've violated THEIR copyrights.
AK, that is oversimplification of a complex subject. Of course as a matter of ethics a source should be attributed, but there is a copyright principal called fair use - there are many instances (scholarly writing, reviews, parody, satire, etc. etc. etc.) in which it is permissible to make limited use of copyrighted material. I am a lawyer but I should emphasize that I'm speaking as a blogger here: I would urge people to learn about their rights and the rights of others rather than avoid blogging about something altogether. What constitues "fair use" and what constitutes "limited use" are but two of the many, many grey areas of copyright, and in my experience these concepts do not lend themselves to quite such a concise summary.
Good to know. I checked Technorati and foudn that someone had "stolen" one of my restaurant reviews to use on their site and did not credit me.
Grrr... Even in the blogosphere you gotta keep an eye out.
ps- a search of food blog s'cool's archives will also bring up ample discussion on copyright issues as they affect food bloggers.
Look in the right hand column and you will see a category labeled copyright questions.
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