Assigning copyright on a website

Intellectual property laws have only now begun to try and address issues of ownership online. With the explosion of social media, however, who owns what is more important than ever – and is more prone to being lost in the annals of re-posting. When operating a website, something that has a longer shelf life than social media, gaining copyright permission should always be a priority.

Is it Fair to Use ‘Fair Use’?

In most cases, the copyright to a created piece of work is granted to the creator (with a few exceptions). Of course, it’s well within the rights of the creator to transfer ownership so that infringement is not an issue. What they’re also signing away, however, is the rights to any future profits earned through that piece. In certain cases, when an image or work has been proliferated enough, or is popular enough to enter the public domain and zeitgeist, snippets of the work (like quotes from a novel) or a shared image online can be called upon as ‘fair use’. The line can be blurry, however, and ‘fair use’, while legally recognized, is shaky enough that a well-placed argument or two in court (for more serious and deliberate infringement issues) could knock it off its feet. Generally speaking, artists and creators don’t mind the sharing and re-posting of their work on websites, but there are caveats to this. As long as they are given credit or openly named as the source, the individual is not trying to profit from the work and does not misrepresent themselves as the original creator, ‘fair use’ can be cited. Furthermore, artists appreciate and often grant permission to those who write for permission.

When In Doubt, Ask for Copyright Permission

Just because it exists and it’s online doesn’t mean reproduction rights are automatically granted. Under the Copyright Act, copyright owners have reproduction, distribution and derivative and display rights. Even when assigning credit on one’s website, after having drafted a permission letter and receiving ‘permission‘, this does not take away the original creator’s rights under this Act. Both the way in which the work will be used and the purpose for permission must be agreed to by the original creator. This means that displaying creative work that is someone else’s on a website and then directly profiting from it counts as unauthorized use of intellectual property, unless the original creator has transferred ownership. Getting permission to use material is, in fact, more than a simple courtesy; a written record of a request could be the difference of thousands of dollars in possible future suits.