Posts Tagged ‘copyright’

Web design is an art that requires being creative while providing a digital product that will compete successfully against others in the same field. Being creative means having an endless stream of web design ideas to capture the essence of the customer’s business in an attractive format.

The goal is a unique high quality web design that helps sell or presell a product or service. To achieve that goal don’t shoplift parts for your web design like graphics, photographs, illustrations, or html code. It is a crime to “borrow” copyrighted content from websites. Easy access does not mean that the content you discover and admire is free to use.

For amateur or do-it-yourself web designers there’s often the temptation to take shortcuts. The internet provides an almost endless world of content that appears free for the taking. There’s no storefront or door to breach, or any safe to crack to get to this wide choice of material for a web design.

Part time web designers who equate easy access as permission to use are either unaware or don’t care about violating copyright. There are viable alternatives for sources of public domain content, royalty based content, or paid content that allows you to use creative materials made available by others.

Some owners may provide creative content with or without restrictions. An example might be the yearly custom business card calendar designs that I offer my site visitors. Others could be manufacturers who allow their distributors to use product photographs. The bottom line is if you did not create or purchase rights to your web design content be sure to have permission in writing to avoid violating copyright law.

Here’s a simple test to look for duplicate or stolen content taken from your website or blog. I’m big on writing free advice for publication, so it works for advice articles written for syndication, too. As the original author you want credit for your work, so looking for duplicates may uncover stolen content that requires action.

You can look for duplicate content by searching a phrase from what you wrote placed in quote marks so Google will search for the words verbatim. I use the same technique to find out where some of my syndicated content gets published to make sure they credit me as the author. To see an example of one that was written as an analogy of attracting search engines, Google the phrase “crawlers and stray cats”.

That search returns over 5000 results that all point to publication of a syndicated advice article on different websites that I wrote in 2007 entitled “Google Crawlers and Stray Cats”. It compares 1) stray cats fed a chunk of meat every day, or even less frequently, who will return daily, to 2) providing new content on your site or blog for Google, and they will return to your site every day, as well. Feed either Google or that stray cat often enough and you become great friends.

The technique to discover duplicate or stolen content requires picking a unique phrase with enough words to avoid common instances. It’s easier with practice and you can edit your searches with longer phrases as necessary, or pick an entirely different one until you get what you need.

If you find violations of your content, you can email the owner to request removal or proper credit, or in worst case situations requiring stronger action Google the phrase DMCA Takedown Request to learn more.

Struggling to add illustrations or graphics to your website design or blog posts? Consider Flickr public domain photographs.

The photos are mostly collections from public archives and as explained on the Flickr usage page http://www.flickr.com/commons/usage/ the photos became public domain for one of these reasons:

1. The copyright is in the public domain because it has expired;
2. The copyright was injected into the public domain for other reasons, such as failure to adhere to required formalities or conditions;
3. The institution owns the copyright but is not interested in exercising control; or
4. The institution has legal rights sufficient to authorize others to use the work without restrictions.

Free to use does not mean free to package and resell as a collection. Please respect copyright when using content for your projects online or in print other than material you own. The Flickr commons is a great resource for photographs to use in your website design or blog posts, but be warned to watch the clock. It is easy to become engrossed in thousands of options and you could end up spending long hours away from your design.

The latest show on the Small Business Website Mailbag podcast was released last weekend entitled “Website Content and Copyright” and the program runs just under 13 minutes.

The podcast presents a case study of photograph copyrights on a small business website that involved verbal permission for use of work project pictures from the original owner. A friendly relationship went sour, and the verbal agreement was replaced with a cease and desist order demanding removal of the photographs.

Listen to the program for additional small business advice about site content subject to copyright, potential copyright problems to avoid, resources for acquiring copyright free material for your website, and tips about obtaining and protecting copyright.

After paying a fee for a custom digital design such as a website, multimedia production, logo, or graphics for online or print, most customers will assume they own the contents of that project. In most cases they do not. The intellectual property and creativity to produce your project belongs to the designer with very few exceptions.

For small business clients who use independent contractors to create custom works for online or printed marketing materials, the question of copyright ownership must be understood. Except in instances where your designer is a direct employee, you do not retain the copyright of custom designs created on your behalf unless the designer specifically transfers the right of ownership to you.

Designers who produce creative works such as websites, multimedia, or printed marketing materials, establish copyright ownership the moment the work is created. Customers should consider the consequences of content they provide, also. Here’s an excerpt about copyright from the order page of the Small Business Resource Center:

Customer Provided Content and Copyright

The customer by placing an order for design services unconditionally guarantees that they own the copyright, or have permission from the copyright holder, of any content they furnish including text, graphics, photographs, audio, video, designs, trademarks, or artwork submitted for use in the website, multimedia, or printed marketing materials.

Design services are provided as an independent contractor, and projects are therefore not “work for hire” as would be the case using a direct employee. As the creative design service provider, Jim Degerstrom retains all rights to any original design of graphics, video production, or programming code created on behalf of the customer. Therefore, customer rights of ownership are limited to fair use of designs in the original intended use only, whether in print or online.

Clients using independent contractors have an obligation to provide content that does not violate copyright law. For example, the term royalty free photographs does not imply free and unlimited use of a photograph. Even photographs from sites such as those listed in my Royalty Free Photo Directory that allow free commercial use without a one-time or recurring fee do not transfer ownership rights to you.

In addition, digital works such as websites, multimedia, and designs for print carry further obligations. Once the designer creates your project they naturally deliver the results for your fair use. They still own the design. Changes or further use of that content without written permission from the independent contractor may be a violation of copyright law, also.

While this post discusses general copyright issues, small business owners and other readers must seek professional legal advice for answers to questions about their specific circumstances.

The directory of royalty free stock photographs at the Small Business Resource Center has been updated to add four additional websites. Our directory rates sites from 5 star down to 1 star, and we now feature links to 22 sites. More than 150 websites were reviewed to save visitors time finding stock photos with limited restrictions for commercial use.

While many stock photo directories use “free” to describe their photographs, caution must be used. There is a subtle yet important difference between copyright, publicity rights, and privacy rights. The US Library of Congress provides an excellent comparison of rights: copyright, publicity, and privacy here.

A photo of a person, famous or otherwise, requires a model release to avoid infringement or violation of fair use. Photographs of famous places or product logos may be in violation of the law, also, even if you took the photograph.

Some stock photo sites may not explain copyright versus publicity or privacy rights, so please read the license of any photograph you are considering from these websites and then for reference review the Library of Congress legal notice to avoid violations.

Visit the Small Business Resource Center free stock photo directory here.