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Respecting copyright while blogging

This tutorial was created in conjunction with Michael Miller, Claudia Perry, Thomas Surprenant, Melinda Miller, and Eva Fernández.

Integrating images, audio, and videos into your blog can be a great way for you and your readers to engage with what you've written. But much of the content on the internet is subject to copyright that you, as a good digital citizen, have a responsibility to respect. On this page you'll find some rules of thumb for acquiring the content you want in a legal and ethical way.

The issue of copyright, and in particular of educational fair use of copyrighted works, is extremely complex, and the information on this page provides only general guidelines. Instructors are encouraged to learn about fair use and take it into careful consideration when designing assignments for their students' public blogs. The University of Minnesota (2006) provides a brief, readable introduction to fair use law and the four factors that characterize fair use: http://www.lib.umn.edu/copyright/fairuse.phtml.

  1. Rules of thumb
  2. Where can I find public domain or Creative Commons-licensed content?
  3. Works cited

Rules of thumb

When possible, use items from the public domain
Works in the public domain are not subject to any copyright. Since no one owns these works, you can reproduce them in any way you'd like, including posting them on your blog. Current copyright law states that a work's copyright expires and it enters the public domain 70 years after the death of the author, or 95 years after the date of publication if the work was released commerically. Most works that are created by the US Government are in the public domain.
Use items released under a Creative Commons license
Many artists, photographers, and other producers of web content release their works under a Creative Commons license. These individuals still own the copyright to their work, but, through the Creative Commons license, they permit members of the general public to use the content in a wide variety of ways. Usually, a Creative Commons license means that you can use the content, as long as you cite the source and give proper credit to the original author. (In fact, you can release your own blog entries under a Creative Commons license! Click on the "Settings" button in the left hand menu and scroll to the "License" section at the bottom of the page.)
Produce your own content
In most cases, if you write a poem, compose a song, make a video, draw a picture, or take a photograph, you automatically own the copyright to that work. (The exceptions are when the content of your work is itself copyrighted, such as when a bootlegger films a movie.) As the owner of this content, you can do whatever you'd like with it—including reproducing it on your blog. So get out there with your camera!
Ask for permission
You might like to include some content on your blog that is neither public domain nor released under a Creative Commons license. Often the copyright owner will be happy to grant you the right to reproduce the content on your blog—all you have to do is ask. Generally speaking, you're more likely to get permission to reproduce a photograph posted on someone's personal website than a photograph posted on the New York Times. Before asking for permission, be sure that you've found the real copyright holder, who is not necessarily the same person as the publisher of the content.
When in doubt, link, don't embed
In general, copyright laws restrict your rights to reproduce content, such as when you repost it to your blog. By linking to the source instead of embedding the photo or video directly into your blog, you can largely skirt the copyright issue. So if the content you want is not in the public domain, is not Creative Commons-licensed, and you don't have permission to reproduce it, play it safe by linking instead.
Cite your sources
No matter what the copyright status of your content is, you should always provide proper citation for any ideas or for any text, images, or other multimedia that you use on your website but were created by others. Your professor will provide you with details on the appropriate style of citation for your course. In addition, it's considered good web-etiquette for content-borrowers to provide a link back to the source of the content.

Where can I find public domain or Creative Commons-licensed content?


Works Cited

Posted by Boone Gorges on January 25, 2005 5:40 PM |