July 30th, 2009 at 06:41am
Under copyright law
The minute you upload something online you become a publisher. As an online publisher it is your responsibility to know a little bit about copyright law. This book is not a legal guide however here are some of the basic things that you need to know about blogging on the Internet.
First of all if you are going to copy someone else’s material you must ask permission first. This means contacting the author or the publisher and asking them for reprint rights. However sometimes the availability rights are printed right on the article along with information that you must credit to the author. This could include the date of original publication, where it was first published or the name of the publisher if it is from a book. Some articles may not be quoted or reprinted from unless you also provide a link to the URL of the author’s choice.
Crediting an article to its rightful source is called attribution. You must always attribute the work of others and you must do it every time you quote from the article. This is true of direct quotes and paraphrasing. You can’t condense someone else’s writing and then assume that the readers will know that it belongs to ideas that are quoted earlier on in the article. That is called plagiarism.
Another important copyright issue is “fair use.” This is a legally defined terms that allows U.S. citizens to copy and distribute the work of others as long as they adhere to certain legal terms. For instance, in the United States bloggers are allowed to quote sentences and short passages as long as the quote is credited to the author.
However giving credit is sometimes not enough and length may have a great deal to do with what you can replicate on the web. For instance you cannot copy and distribute your favorite piece of music through a web blog. Also laws vary from country to country. Don’t fall for the common myth that it is somehow all right to copy material by writers from other countries just because it is the Internet.
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By Copyright Law
July 17th, 2009 at 06:42pm
Under copyright protection
Short Copyright Facts
The owner of a copyright has the exclusive right:
to copy the work
to modify the work
to distribute the work
to perform the work publicly
to display the work publicly
Copyright is important when you obtain content for your site, and in the protection of your content. Copyrightable works are usually on the form of text, image, music, etc. Facts, titles, recipes, form designs, alphabetical lists and other items do not have the required “originality” to merit copyright protection.
One of the misconceptions about copyright protection is that you have to register your work to gain legal protection. If you do protect your original works, you are more likely to win attorneys’ fees and, sometimes, higher damages.
The term “Public Domain” does not mean that everything in public or on the Internet is free from copyright protection. It refers to items that either do not qualify for copyright protection, or for which the protection has expired. The default you should assume for other people’s works is that they are copyrighted and may not be copied unless you know otherwise.
The correct form for a notice on your web site is:
“Copyright [dates] by [author/owner]”
You can use C in a circle © instead of “Copyright” but “(C)” has never been given legal force. The phrase “All Rights Reserved” used to be required in some nations but is now not legally needed most places.
Even if you don’t charge anyone for a product that contains copyrighted materials, you are still violating the law. An example of such an unlawful act would be when Napster enabled widescale download of copyrighted music.
One exception would be fair use. Copyright law does not block your freedom to express your own works. For example, you may be reviewing an article from a news paper’s web site that requires you to reproduce some of the work on your site is not the same as simply copying the work to your site so you don’t have to create your own work. Of course, that does not mean that you can start posting articles from other web sites and pretend you are reviewing them, but you are simply stealing content to cut corners.
One of the key to the fair use doctrine is that you can not diminish the value of the original work. Copying just 300 words from Gerald Ford’s 200,000 word memoir for a magazine article was ruled as not fair use, in spite of it being very newsworthy, because it was the most important 300 words – why he pardoned Nixon.
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By Copyright Law
July 13th, 2009 at 12:42pm
Under trademark law
Corporations may enjoy certain tax advantages. Due to the complexities involved, you should consult an experienced CPA or tax attorney for details. The corporation can adopt a pension or profit-sharing plan for the benefit of the employees. If certain requirements are met, contributions of cash or other property by a corporation to such a plan will be deductible by the corporation for federal income tax purposes.
The corporation pays income tax on the profits that were not distributed to the shareholders as salary or in some other form deductible by the corporation for federal income tax purposes. The shareholders are required to pay a tax on dividends.
A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol or design, or combination of words, phrases, symbols or designs, which identifies and distinguishes the source of particular goods. By and large, a mark for goods appears on the product or its packaging. A “tm” on a product indicates unregistered trademark rights, and an “®” indicates a registered trademark. It is unlawful to place an “®” on a mark that does not have national registration.
As your domain name can become a highly valuable business asset, you should think in terms of trademark registration. Don’t worry about registering your trademark in the very beginning if you are pressed for funds, but take action once you have more revenue available.
One of the most important facts to consider is to avoid using a name that has been trademarked by another business. If you build your brand, even if you have done it unknowingly, around a trademarked name, you could be sued and held liable. Before you register a domain name, go to www.usptodotgov and run a trademark search for the names you’re considering. If you don’t find a match that doesn’t guarantee that your desired trademark is not protected. The database you are searching is about 12 months behind. Doing your own research is worth it because it lowers your risk of violating trademark laws.
When trying to determine the ideal trademark for your business, keep in mind that the purpose of trademark law is to prevent consumer confusion about the source of goods or services. Ask yourself if a consumer would confuse your name with that of another product, service or company.
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By Copyright Law