Julia Dale wrote a blog about how to make money blogging. As I read it I thought about how bloggers sometimes get in trouble for infringing on copyright law. Don't know why, she in no way infringed on any copyright, but I thought about it anyway. Then I realized if it was something I was thinking about, chances are other people who stop by here and check out the streams at Reachby have wondered about it as well. So I decided to put on the ole investigators cap and do some cruising around the net to find out what I could. I am super glad I did, I found some great information, some great resources, and more importantly, now have a broader understanding of what bloggers can and can't use.

Before we get into the nitty gritty of this article it is important that anyone reading this have a basic understanding of some terms I will be using frequently. First is copyright law. Essentially copyright law is a set of laws designed to protect other peoples work. For instance, Stephen Kings books are all protected under copyright law and that means they can only be used in certain ways which brings us to point number two, fair use.

Fair use is the idea that portions of a copyrighted work can be used if it does not infringe on a copyright. This means that a blogger can use part of a copyright under certain circumstances such as commenting, reporting, and satire. This does not mean you can post the complete works of John Grisham on a site, but you can quote from him. It is actually the idea of fair use that is the center of a lot of the legal issues facing bloggers.

Along with fair use, another big thing for bloggers to understand is the DMCA (or Digital Millennium Copyright Act). It is this code that actually has more to do with the legality of blogging than fair use, but you should know both anyway.

Confused yet? If you are don't worry, I am going to do my best to explain all this in greater detail as this article continues. Hopefully by the end of it, you come away feeling a little more educated.

It may be hard to understand why bloggers even need to be concerned with copyright. After all, blogging is either a persons exercising their right to free speech, or acting as an agent of the press, which is also protected under the constitution. However, corporations, which by law are considered individuals (goofy I know, but eh) also have constitutional rights regarding the ownership of property both physical and intellectual. Unfortunately, these two sets of rights come into conflict quite often.

The trick for bloggers is to understand what they can an can not do. Making matters worse is that the legal idea of fair use is pretty vague. As if vagueness wasn't problem enough, another issue mucking up understanding what does and does not constitute fair use is inconsistent court decisions. All this can make the head explode as someone attempts to figure it out. So I decided what would be helpful would be a few Questions and Answers.

The following is not in anyway to be considered legal advice. It is here only for the purposes of information and entertainment. (Liability is another subject I should cover sometime).

Question: I found this really cool picture on another site, can I use it in my blog?

Answer: More often than not the answer is no. However there are certain cases in which it is allowed. Basically as long as you are commenting or reporting on the picture itself, you should be okay. If you are using the picture to promote your own product then that is a big time No No.

Question: Can I quote another news story?

Answer: Generally the answer to this question is yes. However, you do still want to be careful because some weird decisions have been made by the courts. A good way to play it safe is to keep any quote down to a sentence or two.

Question: Can I post a youtube video on my blog?

Answer: The easy answer is yes. The problem is that people regularly post copyrighted material on youtube (which is a violation of the youtube user agreement) and your link to it could be in violation of copyright as well. To avoid issues, it is best to error on the side of caution if you have a question about whether something is copyrighted or not.

Question: Is my blog protected under copyright?

Answer: Yes it is, but you may not necessarily be the one who holds the copyright on your own blog. Most sites that allow you to blog state in the user agreement who owns the copyright. In most cases this means whoever wrote it (like here at Reachby), but you want to double check just to make sure. Also, if you own your own domain and have a blog on that, you own that blog.

This article has gotten quite long, but I think you should have the picture by now. If you have any questions a great site to look up is eff.com. They are a non for profit group dedicated to protecting the rights of bloggers and every blogger should know who they are.