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Copyright Definitions & Law

Copyright law is being misinterpreted by a lot of people; accidently by some and deliberately by others. It isn't as fuzzy an anrea as trademark law.

The first major error is those who believe that if they write it, or photograph it, it is automatically theirs and no one else can use it. There are some really big flaws in this approach:

  1. To be eligible for copyright, the work but be original and creative. There's nothing creative about an auction listing or directions to the local grocery store.
  2. Someone commented they should take a picture of their house so no one else could. Wrong. We could stand in almost the same spot and take almost the same picture and your "copyright" would not stop our use of the picture.
  3. To get statutory damages, a copyright MUST be registered with the copyright office BEFORE the alleged infrinement.
  4. Fair use allows others to use their work for non-commercial, educational use and commentary (such as this web site).
  5. Many things cannot be copyrighted

We do not agree with all of the opinions or conclusions stated in these articles. We have attempted to present all sides of the arguments as we have found them. We only present information we consider to be well-argued and factually supported. We do not take credit for the information presented. The great majority of it is gleaned from other sources. In many cases we credit the originator.

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